2025 PhotoVoice team creates posters with overall themes of mental health and well-being

Bonnie Thornborough
Jun 4
3 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

As I reflect on our year, I feel deep gratitude for the opportunity to share time with our PhotoVoice youth and their creativity. The eclectic group of seven members ranging from 7th grade to 11th grade came together on Wednesdays throughout the year, showing up for various reasons—many of which they were just beginning to understand themselves.

This particular group has a wide range of backgrounds—some had just recently joined the Masco community from another school, another town, another state, and another country.

I felt privileged to witness their dynamics as they shared bits of themselves through conversations, activities, and art-making—primarily chosen and guided by the members themselves.

I felt privileged to witness their dynamics as they shared bits of themselves through conversations, activities, and art-making.

In a system where young people live every day with their attention constantly called to numerous structured expectations and mechanistic activities, our PhotoVoice meetings aimed to nurture a very human space where they could land, reflect, be curious, explore, and begin to share what matters to them—ultimately expressing their voice about being a young person today.

As we experimented with media such as photos, paint, clay, collage, music, writing, and even food, we also shared stories from our lives, threads of emotions, things we imagine and wonder, and plenty of seemingly random thoughts. We kept a board of topics we touched on, ranging from perspective, light/shadow, and focus, to friendships, home, liminal space, black holes, and peace. Underlying it all were big questions such as: “What feels meaningful?”, “What do I want to say?”, and “What feels safe to put out into the community?”

Underlying it all were big questions such as: “What feels meaningful?"

The eight posters below are what the group members ultimately created, with overall themes of mental health and well-being, touching on loneliness, connectedness, growth, self-expression, comfort, randomness, attention, and noticing life’s beauty.

As with anything created—each one holds an invisible journey of how it came to be. We hope that as we share this PhotoVoice artwork with others, something in the meaning expressed will resonate with those who view it.

We hope that as we share this PhotoVoice artwork with others, something in the meaning expressed will resonate with those who view it.

On each poster, we credit the Boxford and Topsfield branches of the Massachusetts Cultural Council for the grants they provided to support PhotoVoice this year. We are grateful for their financial gift, and their expression of community care for uplifting and listening to youth voice. Learn more in an earlier blog post. Thank you!

In May, we were honored to have our PhotoVoice poster series displayed at the Youth At Risk (YAR) Conference, hosted by Pathways for Children at Endicott College. The conference, with the theme “Together, We Thrive” aims to support all those who work in the realm of youth care and empowerment, so we are thankful to be part of the many voices encouraging that work.

Next up, PhotoVoice looks forward to connecting with local community centers and organizations to display our poster series in the months ahead. Stay tuned for dates and more info!

Thank you for spending some time to experience this year’s PhotoVoice artwork. If you have any questions, please email me, Bonnie, at bthornborough@tritowncouncil.org.

PHOTOVOICE WEBSITE: tritowncouncil.org/photovoice

If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, you are not alone, and there are resources and caring people who want to help. Visit our mental health resource page to learn more, reach out, connect, and get help.