RC3 LONG NIGHT OF RESEARCH: RYVU PHOTOVOICE INTERACTIVE SESSION
On 24 March, Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech joined the RC3 Long Night of Research to share experiences on the use of creative and participatory methodologies in volunteering research with practitioners from the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
The first edition of the RC3 Long Night of Research was organised by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Research Consortium (RC3) on the 23rd and 24th of March 2023 to explore the theme “How can research make a difference on volunteering?“. This was the first global online event dedicated to showcasing and reflecting on how research can make a difference on the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s volunteering practices. The event included 23 sessions running continuously for 24 hours across timezones, with a mix of academic panels and interactive workshops bringing together researchers, practitioners, and volunteers from and/or collaborating with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement across the globe to promote constructive and action-oriented debates on current volunteering practices and future volunteering development.
The RYVU team facilitated the session “Innovative and Participatory Approaches to Volunteering Research: Learning from the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda Project”, attended by 20 people from around the world. Dr Bianca Fadel, Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Moses Okech shared insights from the participatory approaches in the RYVU project in interactive ways, particularly the photovoice methodology, and highlighted key areas to keep in mind when adopting the method in volunteering research. Dr Fadel also shared highlights from the use of interactive games as tools for advocacy, impact and dissemination, emphasising the team’s availability in opening up conversations with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies to explore areas of collaboration in volunteering research, and how the learning from the RYVU project can help as an example of participatory research engaging young refugee volunteers from the design to the implementation and dissemination of the findings and resources.
During the ‘Questions & Answers’ and discussion, attendees shared their interest in participatory methodologies for gathering rich evidence about voluntary action in different contexts, also mentioning their experience using photovoice in relation to visual sociology studies, and the ways in which photovoice can be a useful method to document experiences of response to disasters (e.g. cyclones).