Home
Home is Everything
For each of us, home is the center of our world. It is where we design and manifest our future. Being at “home” is a feeling that makes us feel like we belong in the world. It is a predictable and secure place. It is where we manage our emotional and physical well-being. It is our centering place to build and grow healthy relationships, where we orientate ourselves, maintain order, organize our lives and improve our productivity as employees and students.
So too, for aged-out foster youth once they receive their sense of home. It is a place where they can make plans for birthdays, holiday gatherings, and family dinners. It is a wellspring of inspiration to grow their confidence, to go out into the world, and work to improve their life.
The Barriers to Furnishing a Home
- The average American child is completely financially dependent on their parents until age 26. More than 50% of a parent’s financial support to their child is spent on housing.
- To fully furnish a one-bedroom apartment and equip it with all basic items for functionality costs a minimum of $10,000. (Ikea prices without appliances)
- After an average of seven relocations in the system, a former foster youth may secure a Section 8 apartment, but only have the means to sleep, eat, and study on the floor and keep their belongings in garbage bags.
The Science of Home:
A Launchpad to Success
According to the Neuroscience Institute, students and employees are more productive and better able to process information when living in an organized, functional home environment.
According to research by APS Fellow Eldar Shafir, of Princeton University, removing the financial burden of creating a home decreases the likelihood of an individual falling into the “scarcity trap” and increases the likelihood of escaping poverty, improving overall well-being.
Environmental psychology has proven that we see ourselves the way that we see our environment. Having an inspired home helps to increase success at work, school, within relationships, and can even help to inspire elevated personal goals. Beneficiaries of ASOH are given an opportunity to reimagine their future, establish more high reaching goals, and become empowered to be the architect of their own destiny.
Efficacy, optimism, and imagination must be present for human progress to take place, according to positive psychology expert Martin Seligman. For progress to occur, to be effective, and for a sense of agency to be gained, all three must be at play and in motion. Those who have a sense of agency and a positive outlook live an average of eight years longer, have a stronger immune system, realize fewer infections, less inflammation, and faster healing of the body. These individuals are also generally more productive in the pursuit of educational and career goals, have better social relationships, are more creative, more resilient, and are less often depressed than their counterparts. Creating an inspired home environment for someone that has never had a home offers efficacy, optimism, imagination, and results in a greater sense of agency and progress.
A Sense of Home provides deserving young adults with homes in just 90 minutes, giving them a foundation of which they can thrive from.
Crowdsourced from local businesses and individual donors, more than 200 pre-screened and high-quality household goods (otherwise destined for landfills) have been repurposed and installed in homes, allowing ASOH to create a custom-tailored home environment designed specifically to align with each recipient’s taste and style.
© 2020 Copyright A Sense of Home,
A tax exempt charitable organization qualified under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
Tax ID# 47-3814056.
© 2020 Copyright A Sense of Home
Home is a Gateway to Success - A Sense of Home