Rural Women's Health Project Collection
Scope and Content
This collection houses over 600 audiovisual and graphic materials highlights community developed fotonovelas (photonovels,) posters and magazines in addition to videos, original music, workshop and popular education materials on health and justice issues, and user guides relating to topics such as health justice, sexual education, family education, natural disaster preparedness, farmworkers and immigrants from the North Central Florida area. Among the materials are educational tools such as fotonovelas which are designed to provide health education information to individuals as well as community-based organizations. The collection also prioritizes linguistic diversity, offering materials in 14 languages with a special emphasis on indigenous dialects from Latin America: Spanish, Mixteco Alto, Mixteco, Ixil, Akateco, Q’anjob’al, Mam, Zapateco; and Kiché as well as Haitian- Kreyol and English. Immigrant justice materials developed also served Chinese, Vietnamese, and Arabic speakers.
Series 1. Promotional and educational materials contain community-developed posters, brochures, pamphlets, invitations, cards, presentations, zines, and popular education materials on health and justice issues.
Series 2. Audio-Visual Materials includes visual archives of the organization's events and audiovisual presentations of health and justice materials in multiple languages.
Dates
- Creation: 1991-2024
Creator
- Rural Women’s Health Project. (Organization)
Language of Materials
Includes materials written in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole.
Access
The collection is open for research.
Biographical/Historical Note
The Rural Women's Health Project (RWHP), established in 1991 in Gainesville, Florida, is a non-profit organization initially dedicated to community-based health education. They collaborated with communities to implement health projects, create innovative educational tools like fotonovelas and radionovelas, and train both communities and organizations in health education techniques. They advocate for lay-health worker programs in rural areas and operate under a health justice approach, emphasizing positive health behaviors, addressing inequities, and promoting peer education. Central to their approach is communal storytelling, which blends cultural elements with health messaging to create impactful materials, particularly effective among non-English speakers. The contents of this archive document the history of the organization until July 1, 2024, prior to the merger between the RWHP and Human Rights Coalition of Alachua County.
Extent
2.25 Linear Feet (3 Boxes)
Abstract
The collection is a historical record of the Rural Women’s Health Project from its founding, 1991, to the present time this collection has been processed, July 1, 2024. The collection includes community-developed posters, fotonovelas, magazines and other popular education materials as well as user guides related to health issues, social equity, family education, natural disaster preparedness and immigrant rights from North Central Florida and from their regional and national projects. This collection offers a glimpse at community-based work and participatory methodologies that were designed to serve mostly Latina/o immigrants.
Arrangement
The collection was arranged by the Rural Women’s Health Project in the context of the IMLS planning grant "Planning Collaborative Practices for Archiving Farmworker Communities' Histories". The items were to be itemized and arranged chronologically according to the donor's instructions. As part of the participatory process, the inventory, arrangement, finding aid, and metadata were developed with the organization.
Location
University of Florida Smathers Library Building
Acquisition Information
This collection was donated in 2024 by the Rural Women’s Health Project within the context of the IMLS planning grant “Collaborative Practices for Archiving Farmworker Communities' Histories”.
Subject
- Rural Women’s Health Project. (Organization)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- A Guide to the Rural Women's Health Project Collection
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Finding aid created by LACC staff
- Date
- July 2024
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is written in English.
- Sponsor
- Items in this collection are currently being digitized and will be available via the University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) as part of the Planning Collaborative Practices for Archiving Farmworker Communities’ Histories project, which is generously supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant. Please read the Permissions for Use statement for information on copyright, fair use, and use of UFDC digital objects.
Repository Details
Part of the Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Repository
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117005
Gainesville Florida 32611-7005 United States of America
352-273-2755
special@uflib.ufl.edu