Three outstanding youth-serving organizations are teaming up for a fantastic youth health/education/art Summer 2013 project. 

The groups

• Vietnamese Youth Development Center

• Tenderloin Boys & Girls Club

• Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA

The Goals

• Challenge the youth to think about and communicate their own perspectives, through photography and video, on poverty in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, the city poorest neighborhood with the highest concentration of youth. 

• Challenge the youth to think about and communicate advocacy strategies to address poverty in their neighborhood.

• Challenge the policymakers and political leaders to respond to the youth's advocacy. 

• Educate the youth about the impact of a neighborhood's social conditions on their health and development.

• Educate the youth on photography and media skills and techniques.

• Produce a high-quality traveling exhibit to increase public awareness about the severe neighborhood conditions that impact our youth's health and development.

The Methodology

Our project's methodology is derived from the PhotoVoice's philosophy of "participatory photography for social change."  From PhotoVoice's website:

PhotoVoice’s vision is for a world in which no one is denied the opportunity to speak out and be heard.  PhotoVoice’s mission is to build skills within disadvantaged and marginalised communities using innovative participatory photography and digital storytelling methods so that they have the opportunity to represent themselves and create tools for advocacy and communications to achieve positive social change.

The Partners

• UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at SFGH and Center for Health And Risk in Minority Youth and Young Adults (CHARM)

• SF Camerawork

• Tenderloin Economic Development Project