Case Study 2024: Songwriting for Wellbeing

Project Overview
ASONE Hub ran a 10-week songwriting programme in 2024, partnering with Into Bobmin and Young People Cornwall to offer a platform for young people to express their emotions and narratives through songwriting. This programme aimed to promote wellbeing, allowing youth leaders to address and challenge negative behaviours, understand ideologies, and work through anxieties using a creative intervention process.

Activity

• Engaged 23 young people (ages 12-19) from youth services and Into Bobmin sessions in a third-person narrative composition activity.
• Young participants created characters and explored their emotions, leading to discussions about real-life social scenarios and anxieties.
• Used spoken word and melody to craft top-line melodies and developed these into full compositions, incorporating key signatures, chord progressions, and emotional narratives inspired by the hero’s journey and the melodic inflection of spoken word.
• Youth workers used songwriting as a tool to hold space for participants’ experiences and provide support for their mental and social wellbeing.
  
  

Impact
The project provided an expressive outlet for young people, helping them voice complex emotions and social dynamics through songwriting. Youth leaders reported that the activity not only fostered musical skills but also encouraged open discussion about wellbeing, social challenges, and emotional growth. The approach successfully engaged young people in music while providing a supportive environment to navigate personal and social issues.

Legacy
ASONE Hub plans to apply for additional funding to continue this programme across Cornwall as part of a mental health and wellbeing initiative. The success of this pilot has shown that songwriting can be an effective intervention tool, and future sessions will aim to integrate music with mental health support services for young people. We hope to utilise this project as a way of creating original music for young people to perform and as a way of introducing students to music and performance.

Further comments/information
ASONE Hub is enthusiastic about expanding the songwriting wellbeing programme, believing in its potential to support mental health and foster resilience among youth in Cornwall. This initiative aligns with ASONE’s commitment to using music as a powerful tool for positive social change.