The challenges facing public health today are too vast, complex, and urgent to be met by public health professionals alone. To improve the health and wellbeing of diverse communities around the globe, public health leaders are developing tools that engage communities in research and action, most particularly community-based participatory research (CBPR). A growing body of research in many parts of the world over the past two decades has demonstrated that CBPR can improve the quality of research, build effective community-academic partnerships, and positively impact the health of communities and individuals worldwide. To expand our understanding of CBPR tools, this dissertation describes, demonstrates, and evaluates the use of two participatory visual methods: photovoice and videovoice. Photovoice and videovoice provide inexpensive still/video cameras to community members who are trained to use them for community assessment. Community and academic partners work together to critically analyze the photographs/video and share these products to advocate for community and policy change.

Following a brief introduction to participatory visual methodologies, photovoice and videovoice are explored through three dissertation products: (1) a systematic review of the literature (n=37) on photovoice, describing its use and evaluating the manner in which quality of participation is related to processes and outcomes in photovoice projects; (2) a study evaluating the New Orleans VideoVoice Project and describing the project's community assessment findings; and, (3) a DVD produced by the New Orleans VideoVoice project describing the videovoice methodology and community assessment findings in three substantive areas: economic development, affordable housing, and education.

Together, these studies reveal that photovoice and videovoice are aligned with the core principles of CBPR and provide flexible means for strengthening public health research and action. Furthermore, equitable participation of community partners facilitated project outcomes, such as engagement in action, enhanced understanding of community conditions, empowerment, and capacity-building. Although photovoice and videovoice involve some challenges and limitations, such as rights to privacy and implementation costs, they offer exciting possibilities as tools for enhancing community voice, leadership, and action to improve the health and neighborhood conditions of underserved communities.