Identifying the Health Needs of Latino Youth in East North Philadelphia through Photovoice

Introduction: The Hispanic population in East North Philadelphia is abounding with risk factors for poor health. These structural risk factors adversely affect the Hispanic adolescents in the area – a demographic that has historically had little say in the research that is done to contextualize the self identified health needs in the community. Objective: The purpose for this project is to identify the factors that are both helping and preventing healthy development and living of Hispanic adolescents in East North Philadelphia, as well as beginning to find avenues of support for the prioritized self identified needs. Methods: A Photovoice project was used to gain subjective insight from adolescent Hispanic residents in certain zip codes of North East Philadelphia. The question “What helps or prevents you from being healthy in your community?” was posed to 27 participants and served as the guideline for photos to be taken throughout the community. Participants described and discussed their photos with researchers individually and in-group sessions. NVIVO was used to code for node hierarchies and internal consistency. Results and Conclusions: Youth prioritized themes and provided recommendations for addressing health and social concerns. There are knowledge-based benefits from the project due to increased community awareness and action based benefits from connecting with key community stakeholders for their support and awareness. Twelve $50,000 grants were given to non-profits for interventions that target the 4 highest priority needs of the project