Belonging Matters: Standing with Youth Through a Difficult Season

For many of us, the holiday season is a time of warmth, celebration, and togetherness. But for many of the young people in our community, the holidays can bring reminders of instability, strained relationships, or the absence of a safe place to call home.

The holiday season doesn’t pause the realities faced by youth and young adults. Many young people in our community are navigating unsafe living situations, searching for a couch to sleep on, rebuilding family connections, or wondering how they will get through the winter months. These quiet, heavy realities often go unseen, but they are deeply felt.

At A Place 4 Me, we see those realities every day, and even through our own celebrations, we stand with young people through it all. Hearing from youth and young adults themselves, we’ve learned that belonging matters.

Belonging means having someone who checks in. It means being welcomed without judgment. It means feeling valued for who you are, not what you can give. It means knowing that someone cares enough to show up.

Belonging doesn’t erase the challenges young people face during the holidays, but it eases them. It creates room for hope and opportunity. It strengthens resilience. And it reminds each young person that they deserve stability, opportunity, and a place that truly feels like home.

So what does it look like for all of us to help build belonging?

• It looks like slowing down enough to notice when a young person needs someone in their corner.

• It looks like challenging assumptions about what youth homelessness is and who it impacts.

• It looks like offering support without judgment, and listening more than we speak.

• It looks like choosing compassion, even when the world feels rushed and transactional.

• It looks like investing in programs and partnerships that make housing stability possible.

As we gather with our own families, friends, and communities, we invite you to remember the young people who may be navigating complicated feelings, difficult memories, or unsafe circumstances. And if you are able, we invite you to help us create more spaces of belonging, not just during the holidays, but all year long.

Because every young person deserves more than survival. They deserve a community that stands with them, believes in them, and helps them move toward stability.