Where should I hide? / Where should I go? / I don’t know, I follow my soul / No sense of time, no home/ We’re just playing / If I take that, would they know? / I’m in a dark place, call me mole / Dig deeper, the roots grow / Will they get exposed?

So go the lyrics to Hide N Seek, one of the songs in a music project created by Ric Flo about his experiences of foster care. He originally intended to show young people that they could create a positive future for themselves, regardless of their past. But after being invited to perform the song at Swansea social services’ Looked After Children Achievement awards in 2014 – and deliver photography and music writing workshops the following year – Flo was soon convinced to use his talents to empower foster children through the art of rap.

“It was so rewarding to give back through a passion of mine. It was the seed of knowing that there’s value in [rap as therapy] and that if it’s done the right way, it can be a therapeutic experience – just like it was for me,” says Flo, who moved to the UK from Nigeria when he was nine months old and was fostered from the age of eight.

“I had four or five placements and the first carers were quite disruptive. I just felt like they were in it for the money. They used to be quite racist when they were arguing between themselves and sometimes I’d go to school without lunch,” says Flo. “I found solace and peace in being creative; drawing my favourite characters and listening to music in my bedroom. You could say that was the first act of therapy.”

Since the idea blossomed in Swansea, Flo has delivered rap therapy workshops for looked after young people in London and Birmingham. He starts every workshop by introducing himself and talking about his experiences.

“Some organisations want a definitive result – a full song by the end of the session – but I’ve realised that the main point is for young people to feel confident enough to share what they’re feeling, so I open up first; I talk about my background, why I care about doing this and do an introduction rap.”

For the first 20 minutes, youngsters talk about what music they like and why they like it, before delving into Flo’s “rap toolkit”: 20 songwriting techniques he has learned over the years that introduce the group to rhyming words and using beats. From there, they work together to write a song.

“Many of the young people come from difficult backgrounds. They might have difficulties at home with their birth parents, or they might have come from neglect or poverty,” says Luke Rogers, director of Foster Focus, an organisation Flo has worked with.

“Sometimes the effects can be quite undermining but Ric alleviates that stigma. He shows young people what they can achieve, how they can express themselves in creative ways, and they don’t feel lonely as they’re communicating with other people who are all going through something similar.”

The arts, play and creative therapies have all been shown to help children in foster or kinship care, or adoptive families, to recover from complex trauma.

“For children and young people in our care, creative activities can be therapeutic and provide them with an opportunity to express themselves and communicate their experiences,” says Jenny Coles, chair of the families, communities and young people policy committee at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. “This is hugely important in helping children manage their feelings and develop emotional resilience.”

“Looked after children often struggle in expressive subjects,” says David Cregan, headteacher at the Virtual School for looked after children in Tower Hamlets, where Flo delivered workshops this summer. “They do well in subjects such as maths and science – things that are what they are – so it’s good to see children do expressive writing and perform their work under his guidance. Music gives them the chance to express how they’re feeling in a way that’s slightly detached from just talking about it.”

Flo also works as a freelance animator and is one third of hip hop group Jungle Brown. With tracks on Spotify and a Glastonbury appearance under their belt, Flo hopes the group’s growing popularity will give him the opportunity to do more rap therapy workshops. Beyond that, he hopes that young people in care will always have a creative outlet to help express what they’re going through.

“I’d love to make sure that there’s a local youth club with music facilities – that isn’t getting shut down – in every single part of the country,” he says. “I don’t know where I’d be without art and creativity. As weird as life was, art was the place where I found peace. That act of venting and putting it on a page, and being weightless from the heavy emotions, that’s a very powerful tool.”

• Ric Flo is among the speakers at Being the Story on Friday 20 October

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