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 Tashyra “Shy” Jackson of La Crosse, Executive Director of Operations for Hope Restores. In this video, Shy describes Hope Restores as a resource center dedicated to helping anyone who walks through its doors, particularly those facing challenges related to mental health, housing instability, and other barriers to well-being.
Shy believes that housing stability is deeply connected to equity and opportunity. When people have a safe and stable place to live, she says, they can begin to think beyond immediate needs, pursue new possibilities, and dream about their future.
For Shy, home is much more than a physical place. It extends beyond the space where she lays her head: it is peace of mind, safety, stability, and the comfort of knowing you belong.
