Using photography to understand the impact of COVID-19 on rural Eastern North Carolina

The purpose of this project is 1) being to help social workers and social work students better understand the impact COVID-19 and the global pandemic has had on communities in Eastern North Carolina. 2) to help social work educators understand how students will use Photovoice in social work practice and in social work research. 3) to learn what students would do to change the social problems (as social workers) connected to COVID-19 identified using photography with community partners. This research is timely and important as communities return to face-to-face activities and social work students graduate and enter the work force during a global pandemic. The COVID-19 virus and lack of preparedness on both the state and federal level resulted in a public health crisis rendering not only our community helpless but communities across the world as well. This project is important to understand how social work students will work with community partners during the new abnormal of a COVID society and the impact this had on their communities.

Scholars @ ECU