Impact on Recipients

A Solution to Homelessness

50% of the Homeless Population Spent Time in Foster Care

Furnishing a home is a weapon against homelessness: “Furniture provision services reduces tenancy failure… a lack of furniture has adverse psychological impacts.”*

A Roof is Not Enough – Upcycling & Volunteers Change Everything

In 90-minutes, a community of loving volunteers harnesses the excess capacity business model to furnish a space with donated goods. Without a bed, basic kitchen items, and a place to work, eat, and study, self-sufficiency is not possible.

*(CRESR at Sheffield Hallam University, “Assessment of the need for furniture” Aimee Ambrose, et al, Mar. 2016)

A Unique & Proven Model
100% Success Rate

100% of recipients have maintained housing stability. Recipients of ASOH have greater improved outcomes than their peers who have not received ASOH services. While organizations exist to support foster youths’ transitions to independence, no other organization is exclusively dedicated to providing home necessities to help youth successfully achieve self-sufficiency.

82.6%
 of beneficiaries report feeling in control of their finances.

100%
 of beneficiaries have successfully maintained their sense of home.

100%
 of beneficiaries report feeling hopeful about their future.

100%
 of beneficiaries report feeling confident in their ability to succeed.

100%
 of beneficiaries report feeling equipped to take on life’s challenges.

Breaking Down Barriers

The average person spends the largest percentage of their income on housing and the greatest amount of their time at home. Home is the greatest variable in determining how successful an individual will become.

ASOH helps to removes the financial, physical, psychological, and health related barriers to creating a home. ASOH breaks down these barriers and helps to advance economic empowerment for youth aging out of foster by providing a home and the necessary tools, resources and opportunities to help them achieve their educational, career, financial and health goals.

Economical

Barriers:

  1. Research states that the average cost to furnish a one-bedroom apartment, with the bare essentials, is $8,353. This average cost does not take into account appliances, bathroom essentials, cooking equipment, cleaning items, dining utensils, tools, or home organization items. This average also neglects to take into account the cost of art or home décor items, and does not account for the renting of trucks, delivery charges or labor costs required for item assembly.
  2. On average it takes a well-funded individual five-months to furnish a one-bedroom apartment.
  3. American children, on average, are 100% financially dependent on their parents until age 26 – primarily related to housing.
  4. For youth that are aging out of foster care and are without a family and/or community, the greatest barrier faced is stable housing. Without stable housing, youth are unable to build a career and attain the education needed to escape poverty.

Gains:

  1. ASOH provides a unique financial grant to young people aging out of foster care, in the form of a home creation. ASOH supports the physical manifestation of the youth’s very first home environment, helping them to escape the cycle of homelessness and poverty.
  2. ASOH provides more than 250 individually sourced, high-quality items that are installed in each previously empty apartment. ASOH helps to remove financial, physical and emotional barriers to creating a well-functioning home environment.
  3. Research states that without a functional home environment, educational and career goals cannot be attained (for the individual or their children). The absence of a functional home environment leads to a decline in physical health, mental health, and overall well-being.

Physical

Barriers:

  1. The physical capacity to furnish one’s home, on their own.

Gains:

  1. In less than 90 minutes a home is created, demonstrating that we go further together and the power of teamwork.
  2. Youth pay-it-forward, becoming empowered as team members and learning how much they have to offer.

Health

Barriers:

  1. New research states that individuals experiencing housing instability (moving frequently, couch surfing, living in their car or on the streets) are more likely to experience poor health, when compared to their stably housed peers; and as a result, are less likely to succeed at work and in their educational pursuits.
  2. Secondly, new research has found that health can be negatively impacted by poor living conditions within the home (i.e., the inability to perform basic functions such as cooking, eating, studying and sleeping).
  3. Thirdly, research describes negative health impacts that may result from financial burdens associated with high-cost housing (i.e., the cost to create a functioning home).

Gains:

  1. A home is vital to good health, which directly impacts one’s ability to achieve financial, career and educational goals.

Psychological

Barriers:

  1. Where to begin? How to go about furnishing one’s home.

Gains:

  1. The design is personalized for the recipient, making them feel seen and heard.
  2. The recipients learn that they matter to the world when a group of strangers literally show up on their doorstep and prove they are worthy of celebration.
  3. The introduction ceremonial circle is an opportunity for the recipient to share their story, hopes, and dreams whilst also hearing and seeing the vulnerability and joy of strangers making them feel connected to greater humanity.
  4. The furniture installed is of high quality, letting the recipient know that they are worth it, and signifies the quality that they should strive for.
  5. Environmental psychology has proven that we see ourselves the way see our environment. Therefore the inspiring new home environment improves self-esteem, self-confidence, increased feelings of self-worth.
  6. The before and after of their once empty and depressing space in only 90 minutes exemplifies that radical transformation is possible.

ASOH’s Hierarchy of Needs

Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s theory argues that humans have a series of needs, which by addressing, enables us to reach our full potential. The UN Development Program measures its Human Development Index not in the gross domestic product of a nation, but in the capabilities of individuals to achieve sets of outcomes that improve the human condition — by how much a citizenry moves up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. By providing a home created by the community and former foster youth, ASOH has the unique ability to move individuals through all levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and improve the human condition.

Outcomes of Attaining Each Level

Preventing Homelessness

Financial Independence

Breaking the Cycle of Generational Poverty

Increased Community Connection

Creating a Community of Like-Minded Individuals

Reduction of Children Going Into Foster Care

More Productive Citizens in Work and Education

Transform from Surviving to Thriving

Foster youth who have overcome all odds to achieve a roof over their head, but arrive with only the means to live on the floor, are likely to become homeless. ASOH helps them go from surviving to thriving.

25% of Youth
who have aged-out of the system won’t graduate from high school or be able to pass their GED.

80%
of incarcerated inmates in US prisons have spent time in foster care.

70%
of girls who have been in the system of foster care will become pregnant before age 21.

50%
of the homeless population spent time in foster care.

60%
of all child sex trafficking victims have histories of being in foster care.

47%
is the unemployment rate of youth aging out of the foster care system.

Less Than 3% Chance
of aged-out foster care youths going on to earn a college degree at any point in their lifetime.

25%
of foster youth have been diagnosed with PTSD.

Impact on Recipients - A Sense of Home