What I wish I’d known then: my three top tips for engaging ‘vulnerable’ women in arts-based research.

Abstract

Throughout my adult life I have worked with so-called vulnerable groups in various roles, including as a social researcher, community artist and adult educator. Through this engagement, I have learnt to view vulnerability as an ‘amorphous concept’, which is often quite meaningless to how research participants view themselves (van den Hoonaardan 2019, p. 3). For my PhD study, I chose to work with women who could be considered acutely vulnerable, as all were survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and recent homelessness. In this module, I reflect on my experiences of facilitating a collaborative, arts-based research study with nine ‘vulnerable’, yet extremely powerful, young women. Please note that for some readers the content may be difficult; although no reference is made explicitly to the participants’ abuse histories, the trauma they endured is seen to impact on their ability to fully engage in the study.