Co-Creating inclusive youth communal listening experiences

While digital music streaming is ubiquitous, it often isolates young listeners from shared identity-building moments that define youth culture. New restrictions on social media use, rising live-music costs, and venue accessibility have created a deficit of opportunities for shared musical engagement. Informed by findings from recent RMIT/Sonaur symposia (Nov 2025, Feb 2026), strategic priorities of the youth music organisation 'The Push', and published research on socio-emotional music interventions (e.g., Rodwin et al., 2023 & Romano et al, 2024), this presentation outlines a proposal to address this gap through localised community-driven communal music-listening, discovery and discussion experiences. We propose a 12-month exploratory initiative to co-design a framework and deliver a proof-of-concept pilot program. The model will integrate interoceptive awareness and communitas to support an embodied sense of connection and belonging. Through invited partnerships with 'The Push’, the framework will be developed using a youth-led co-design methodology. This process incorporates dedicated youth focus groups and a youth advisory committee to ensure the proposed intervention accurately reflects the lived experiences and needs of modern adolescents. Crucially, the initiative will prioritise neuro-inclusive and culturally safe design principles. This includes exploring the integration of environmental sensory affordances, such as adjustable acoustic environments and designated low-stimulus quiet zones, to accommodate diverse cognitive profiles and support sensory regulation. The framework will adopt clear psychosocial safety protocols guided by experienced facilitators. The pilot phase aims to engage 50 youth participants over a six-month delivery period. The initiative incorporates a mixed-methods evaluation framework, utilising pre- and post-session wellbeing surveys alongside qualitative participant interviews to assess the intervention's validity and effectiveness. Our goal is to validate the role of communal music-listening, discovery and discussion experiences as a scalable, community-based support for youth mental health and social well-being. We acknowledge the exploratory scope of this work and the requirement for a comprehensive formal evaluation following the pilot phase.

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2026 CAWRI Conference: Creating wellbeing: Youth, Arts, and Mental Health

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