Home is a simple word, but the experience of finding home is personal, complex, and always evolving.
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters invites people across Wisconsin to join our Finding Home series and explore what it means to find home through the lenses of science, arts, history, literature, and civil discourse.
In every region of the state, people shape their sense of home through cultural expression, ecological knowledge, and community care. Many are also noticing changes in the places they know best, from shifting seasons to new pressures on land, housing, and water. Finding Home programs explore how people respond with creativity, stewardship, and resilience.
At its core, Finding Home brings people with different perspectives together with the goal of deepening understanding and identifying shared values and common ground.
This Finding Home success story features Kahya Fox of La Crosse, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of the Greater La Crosse Region. In this video, Kahya reflects on the impact that her role at Habitat has had on her life and community, including her involvement in transformative neighborhood revitalization efforts like ReNew the Block.
For Kahya, Habitat’s work is about much more than providing physical housing. Instead, it is about creating safety, stability, and sustainability for families. She describes homeownership as a trajectory-changing opportunity for low-income community members who have historically been denied access to owning a home and building generational wealth.
To Kahya, “home” is intangible. It is, as she puts it, “the feeling in your stomach that you no longer have to worry,” and the assurance that you have a safe place to return to at the end of each day.
