Follow Me Home FMH_RESOURCE_PACK | Page 4

— What does home mean to you? 44,000 young Australians under the age of 24 are homeless. Young people represent 38% of the overall homeless population. 1 There is probably somewhere you think of as your home. Home might be the building you live in. It might be your family, or the people you feel closest to. Perhaps it’s simply where you sleep or where you store your belongings. Somehow, it’s home to you. Like thousands of young people in Australia today, the characters in Follow Me Home are living without a safe and stable place to call home. But what does home mean to you? — Activity A Place to Call Home 1 Break into small groups and brainstorm a list of things that you associate with your home. For example, these could be places, people, objects or feelings. When all groups have finished, compare each list and see if there were any common words. Discuss how these words evoke a sense of home. 2 Back in your groups, make a second list of things that cause you stress in your life and the ways that you usually manage that stress. Once again, compare all groups’ lists and look for common experiences. 3 Now imagine all the elements of home that you identified in Step 1 are unavailable to you. How much did you rely on them to manage stress in your life? As a class, discuss what you think you might have to do differently if you didn’t have a home or family support you could depend on. — Image Photographer Luke Stambouliah Art Director Justin Stambouliah Talent Jordan Dulieu Jasper Lee—Lindsay — 1 Australian Bureau of Statistics