Home is Everything

Home shapes every aspect of our lives: from our well-being to happiness, sense of belonging, relationships, lifestyle, identity, ability to learn, self-expression, socialization, intimacy, comfort, security, self-realization, and social capital.

We spend over 2/3 of our lifetime at home.

The average person spends the largest percentage of their income on home. Our most basic survival needs and our most complex needs are all satisfied thanks to the place we call home.

75% of all illnesses are a result of the environment we keep.

Research has shown that home plays the most influential role in shaping our physical, mental health, and our productivity levels, and the health of our relationships. Home is such an omnipresent force in each our lives that we often do not appreciate it until it is taken from us.

Win Win Win Win for Society

The ASOH model addresses two major social crises: homelessness and the environment. We match excess consumer goods with those in need through a seamless process that adds value to every participant, at every step.

Reduce Landfills

Volunteers and participants gain improved well-being and productivity

An aged-out foster youth gains a sense of home and a sustainable tenancy

Reduction in homelessness

Home: A Launchpad to Success

  • All disciplines of science agree that a fully functioning shelter is the first and most essential building block to living a healthy and productive life. From Neuroscience to Sociology, Public Health, Anthropology, and Psychology — the evidence is clear it’s impossible to improve one’s life without a functioning home..
  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the standard in psychology for measuring one’s ability to achieve success in work, studies, health, and relationships. One must have a bed to sleep in and have the ability to prepare and store food in order to attain the very first level on Maslow’s Hierarchy. This and all levels are possible thanks to the ASOH home creation.
  • Reducing poverty and homelessness begins with the simple step of eradicating furniture poverty by dispersing the immense excess that exists. Furniture poverty impedes an individual or a family’s ability to properly inhabit and function in their shelter and undermines their health and productivity in work and school.

Empirical Evidence in Environmental Psychology

has found that an inhabitant flourishes in their home when the home reflects their personality and aspirations.

Each ASOH home creation is custom designed for the recipient based on their goals, favorite colors, passions, hobbies, aspirations, and tastes. The humanitarian approach to the design and the loving embrace by the community of volunteers is as impactful as eradicating furniture poverty:

  • The inspiring, high-quality new home environment enables the beneficiary to reimagine their future, establish more exalted goals, and become empowered to be the architect of their own destiny.
  • After a lifetime of rejection, trauma, neglect, poverty, and hardships, each recipient is celebrated, honored, respected, valued, seen, heard, and understood.
  • Receiving the attention of up to 30 strangers who have volunteered to create the home makes them understand that they matter. It creates a deep connection and an investment in the community, specifically with a sense of purpose and wanting to make a positive impact.
  • The love of strangers creates a shift in the recipient’s ability to trust and build connections with those who have had a different experience than theirs.
  • Witnessing the vulnerability and joy of strangers makes the recipient feel more connected to humanity and confident in facing their own vulnerabilities in order that they may heal.
  • “Hope,” Jane Goodall says, “is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. You won’t be active unless you hope that your action is going to do some good. So you need hope to get you going, but then by taking action, you generate more hope. Hope is something we can cultivate. Hope is a survival trait. Without it we perish.”
  • An opportunity to realize that their voice matters and it can educate and inspire others
  • An immersive experience and understanding that radical transformation is possible and how to create a ripple effect of goodness and kindness.
  • Moved by the experience, the beneficiary becomes a conduit for change — by paying it forward, helping create homes for others, and volunteering in the ASOH warehouse.
Home Is Everything - A Sense of Home