“Music is everything”: Using collaborative group songwriting as an arts-based method with children experiencing homelessness and family violence

Children experiencing homelessness and family violence sometimes have reduced opportunities to access appropriate educational, social and recreational supports. However, music often remains as a personal resource in children’s everyday lives. This article explores the use of songwriting as a participatory arts-based research method to give voice to young people’s understandings of how they use music in the context of homelessness and family violence. Fifteen children 8–14 years participated in music-based focus groups that involved writing a song about what music meant to them. The collaborative songwriting research method was designed to engage children in creative and child-centered ways throughout all stages of the data generation and analysis process. This incorporated brainstorming to generate data and then the songwriting process was used as a way of analyzing the data. Two songs will be provided as an arts-based representation of children’s experiences and understanding of music as a resource. Throughout the process of writing the songs, the children described how music provided an escape from what was happening in their lives and offered hope for a better future. Implications for working with children in this context will be discussed along with critical considerations for using collaborative songwriting as a research method.