On the second floor of International Community Health Services (ICHS) in the heart the Seattle's International District, a group of twelve residents crammed around a table to watch digital stories. These videos were created by their peers as first person testimonials about access to physical activity and green space.

 

Just a mile away a few weeks earlier, a group gathered at Entre Hermanos, a local organization  supporting the Latino LGBTQ community. Despite the Seattle deluge, the intrepid budding photographers scoured the neighborhood with digital cameras (and umbrellas) to document evidence of tobacco marketing and availability.

 

Both of these workshops are part of an innovative approach to public health prevention: Mapping our Voices for Equality (MOVE). MOVE incorporates alternative media messages created by local Latino and Asian residents and other data related to health inequities into an online map of King County. The CPPW MOVE project team includes Sea Mar, ICHS, Entre Hermanos and Creative Narrations.

 

Through a participatory mapping process, community members will identify, analyze and act on health issues while building local capacity in multimedia technology. This process supports the development of visual tools that will allow disenfranchised communities to "see" inequity and to become part of the solution. The MOVE map will be promoted through a combination of online social networking and on-the-ground workshops to prompt dialogue, identify opportunities for community mobilization, and address decision makers.

 

At the digital storytelling workshop at ICHS, the woman who was instrumental in revitalizing Chinatown's International Children's Park huddled with two youth; all three are volunteers at the park. They were trying to figure out how to tell the story of how local residents organized to redevelop the underused space. In six months, users will be able to zoom in on a map of King County to the tiny green space in the midst of concrete, click on an icon, and watch a video created by the leaders that made this space a home for their children.

 

                   

 

In the future, MOVE intends to broaden its scope from tobacco and obesity prevention to other community priorities, becoming a portal for King County organizations to reflect and act on inequity. Through mapping our present, we seek to change our future.

 

For sample stories, please visit www.mappingvoices.org.

The Central Area Senior Center got a special delivery when Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S.D.A., and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn paid a visit for Senior Service's first Farm to Table delivery.  

  

Kia Armstrong, Manager of Nash's Organic Produce in Sequim, Wash., delivered cabbage, parsnips, and triticale flour to Senior Services' Chef and Nutrition Site Coordinator, Anthony Herts. 

  

Tuesday, April 26

8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Embassy Suites Hotel

Click here to RSVP. Lunch will be provided.