Public Policy Task Force

This task force will involve students in an arts-based research project to explore one of Beyond Social Service’s youth mental health programme. Beyond Social Services is a social service agency and charity dedicated to helping children and youths from les s privileged backgrounds break away from the poverty cycle. Their youth mental health programme, “HeadStrong”, which started in March 2022, aim to provide a safe and brave space for youths to talk about mental health. Working from a nervous system, trauma relational and strength informed perspective that is embodied, based, the work at HeadStrong is grounded in the fields of neuroscience, attachment, and trauma through different mediums of engagement such as drama, writing and hiking. While the project is n ot conducting therapy, anecdotal evidence suggests that often the work is therapeutic and healing both on the individual and community level among the youth participants. HeadStrong will head into Phase 2 of their programme in October 2022, where youth participants will create TikTok videos, built upon their reflections and learnings from the project. The aim of Phase 2 is for participants to become youth advocates in mental health issues leveraging on social media to create awareness and educate, as well as to get their message across to a broader audience. Arts based interventions and programming have been shown to be successful in supporting youth wellbeing and play a restorative role in youth mental health (Zarobe & Bung ay, 2017). In 2019 the World Health Organisation reported positive impact of the arts on health related factors and conditions, recommending the implementation of community arts programmes for mental health and developing interventions that encourage arts engagement as a way to promote healthy lifestyles (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). Studies have also shown that participation in the arts predicts higher positive mental health in young adults, with the potential to relieve stress, build resilience, support identity formation, and develop vital social connections among youth (Block e t al., 2022; MacGregor et al., 2022 services, mental health and wellbeing, as well as trauma). Students with an interest in social informed community engagement can gain practical insights from this experience. The Public Policy Taskforce in T2, AY2022/23 will conduct a participatory arts based inquiry to explore the experiences of youth participants in the programme as they develop TikTok videos in HeadStrong. This study will also examine the methodologies used at HeadStrong that create conditions for “safe and brave” spaces to emerge, where youths are afforded tools and 1SMU Classification: Restricted resources necessary to explore “purposive shifts in subjectivities and identities” and “orientation to a collective an d building of community” (Holland & Gomez, 2013, p. 156).  Students will use creative research methods to describe participants’ perceptions, based inquiry motivations, meanings and attitudes in relation to the topics discussed within the programme. Arts will be used to explore participants’ subjective experiences where verbal descriptions may not be sufficient, or with sensitive topics that focus on exploring feelings and emotions. Further, using arts informed inquiry can be useful to address emerging trends or aspects of social connections where more traditional methods may not always be sufficient, such as the use of social media (e.g. TikTok) for advocacy, connection and community building. Students will be trained in tools and techniques of fieldwork and artsbased qualitative research methods, including data generation, analysis, interpretation, and representation. Arts based research methods may include literary writing (storytelling, spoken word, poetry), visual arts (video, drawing, collage), and performing arts (dance, roleplay, music, drama). These tools adapt the tenets of the creative arts to address research questions in holistic and engaged ways in which theory and practice are intertwined, to rethink ways of inquiring, investigating and know ing beyond traditional or conventional research methods. This research training will be excellent preparation for anyone taking on an independent study or thesis which involves primary research, and who may want to go beyond the conventional methods of re search. Students in the task force will be required to undertake regular fieldwork when HeadStrong sessions are conducted, as well as adhoc visits for arts inquiry or interviews with youth participants.