Skip to main content

What is the impact of the arts on people affected by homelessess? - Bruna Martins

Hello! Today I would like to share a bit more about a project that I am conducting. 

Just to remind you, the big name for my PhD project is "Exploring the balance of socio-musical factors that shape the experiences of members of choirs for people affected by homelessness" (yes, I finally memorized it!).

To start understanding this topic I decided to conduct a scoping review.  My objective, first, was to map the literature about any collective music activities and their impacts on people affected by homelessness. I wanted to understand not only which impacts were found, but which methods were used to find them, which approaches were adopted, and where these studies took place. 

I conducted a search through a few databases but only found 9 papers, which was not ideal for a scoping review. After talking to my supervisors we agreed that I could expand my search to any arts-related collective activity. This strategy, hopefully, would give me more results and would be an opportunity to learn from other areas. 

In fact, now I have 40 papers on my scoping review.  I am still in the process of analyzing their data, but I already have a few interesting things that I would like to share:

  • Most papers were conducted on countries in the Global North: Canada, the USA, and the UK. Even when I searched for papers in Portuguese and Spanish, which are languages that I know and that are spoken in the Global South, the papers in these languages were still scarce.  
  • Most papers used qualitative methods. Interviews were the preferred method of most studies, followed by observations and focus groups. 
  • Participatory approaches were adopted in a few papers. Studies used creative methods such as photovoice, vox pops, and artistic outputs. 
  • The impacts analyzed are mostly related to social gainings, such as improved social skills, building community, and fighting stigma 
Further analysis is underway and hopefully, it will be completed by next month. I will present the results at the next ESCOM conference which will happen from the 3rd to the 6th of July, 2024. If you are interested in knowing more about this project do find me there! 

See you soon!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singing in VR Study - ISO Participants

We are looking for people interested in participating in a study on the psychosocial effects of Singing in Virtual Reality (VR)! If you are between 18-60 years old, not currently involved in a musical group, and interested in singing and/or VR, we would love to have you involved in this study. This study involves filling questionnaires on your wellbeing, self esteem, and social connectedness before, during, and after participating in a VR singing experience over the course of 2 weeks. You may or may not be asked to sing. Your data will be anonymised and there will be no recordings taken of your participation. What’s in it for you? By participating in this study, you will receive a £15 Love2Shop gift card and have an opportunity to use a PICO 4 Ultra VR headset. Interested in getting involved? Fill out the form below for more information! SingVR: Interest Form - Google Forms If you have any questions, please get in touch with the lead researcher, Dana Greaves, at dana.greaves@york.ac.u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Psychology of Music Masters at the University of Sheffield

Hello all! Emily here. I am a proud graduate of the Master’s programme in Psychology of Music at the  University of Sheffield . I have recently been invited to write a piece reflecting on my experience of the course and post-course life.  The fact that I remain based in Sheffield and continue to work within the Music Department five years later speaks volumes about the quality of teaching, the depth of expertise, and the genuine care shown by professors, lecturers, and support staff in enabling each student to gain the most from their studies. I can say with confidence that I would not be where I am today without having undertaken this Master’s programme. I completed the Masters Programme in Summer 2022. For my collaborative dissertation (supervised by Prof Renee Timmers), I was partnered with Mir Jansen, the Arts Coordinator at Arts in Health (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), an organisation who provide craft activities for hospital staff, patients and vis...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Singing in Balance Convention Update

Hello! Emily here! Exciting news! The Singing in Balance Network is currently in the process of organising a Convention about accessible and inclusive singing practice. It is shaping up to be a brilliant event, and we would love you to be a part of it. The Singing in Balance Convention (SiBCon) is happening on 9–10 September 2026 at The Priory Street Centre in York. It is a two-day gathering for group singing practitioners and researchers to come together, share their insights into inclusive and accessible group singing practice, and have some great conversations that can help us develop our knowledge and practice in the UK. We are currently inviting contributions from practitioners and researchers, so if any of the following sounds like you, we would love to hear from you: You work with a choir or singing group. You work in a social or healthcare setting. You're based at a university or conservatoire, or are an independent researcher. You have experience leading singing groups wit...
Post a Comment
Read more