Using videovoice to enhance community outreach and engagement in the National Children's Study

This study describes a videovoice project implemented in Cook County, IL as a participatory research method to engage targeted communities in the National Children's Study (NCS). The NCS is a prospective observational study that examines the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of 100,000+ children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. Videovoice is a health advocacy and promotion methodology wherein project participants learn videographic techniques to research issues of concern, communicate their knowledge, and advocate for change. In this project, videovoice was used to train community members who served as liaisons between the NCS Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) team and neighborhoods selected by the NCS for participant recruitment and retention. Six community residents and the four member NCS COE team took part in a seven week videovoice training. As a result, participants reported significant increases (p<.05) in their videography/photography skills, community outreach/communication abilities and awareness of important local community health issues. The resulting footage was qualitatively analyzed to determine overarching themes that will inform future COE activities. Major themes included: the importance of linking participation in the study to addressing local public health concerns such as high asthma prevalence among children living near coal-burning power plants and widespread lead contamination. In Spanish-speaking communities the importance of careful messaging and securing buy-in from trusted community stakeholders arose repeatedly. Footage was compiled by videovoice project participants into two videos, one English-language and one Spanish-language, which are used to promote the study.