Home is where the heart is, according to young people

After a period of Covid-induced disconnection, ‘real-world’ communities are experiencing a resurgence, and, for the young people we spoke to, the importance of meaningful social interaction, community support, and mutual aid is only growing. Helen Job, Insights Director at SPACE10, predicts that “in the future there will be an increased interest in... See more

“There is growing respect for indigenous wisdom among young people that places community at its core” – Helen Job, Insights Director at SPACE10

as Tara Thiagarajan, founder and chief scientist at Sapien Labs, told the Washington Post, this well-being crisis is “not an isolated issue of one country. It’s a global issue.”

Clearly, physical safety is obviously of utmost importance to today’s youth, but so is a broader sense of mental and emotional wellbeing. Young people don’t just want to feel safe, but secure and calm too. At the moment, unfortunately, this simply isn’t the case.

There is a clear, resounding divide between young people’s aspirations, hopes and dreams, and the reality they find themselves in. Currently, a majority of 18 to 24 year olds still want to own a home in the future, but our survey shows that this is increasingly seen as a pipe dream for many. “I would like to buy a home in the future,” one female re... See more

while only 13 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds associate home with physical space, 15 per cent said they associate it with a sense of self. Although there were notable differences across cultures, young people consistently imagined home as an almost sacred sanctuary — a space to escape, find refuge and, crucially, to be free of judgement.

Overwhelmingly, this feeling was described as one of safety and refuge, but also of freedom. As one of our respondents put it, “home is a sense, a satisfied feeling. Home doesn’t need to have four walls, it’s more than that.”

In our survey, 42 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds said that a safe space was the most important thing when thinking about the ideal home, and nearly half said they think of home as a feeling – over three times as many as the 13 per cent who described it as a physical space.

in an unstable, unpredictable world, ‘home’ becomes an increasingly fluid and emotional concept.