The Floating Sanctuary

Too many children are not getting the chance to follow their dreams, and it has a negative impact on their mindset, and on culture as a whole. Lives are stunted and depression and mental illness is on the rise. The education system leaves little room at times for creativity and belonging -- there is a critical need for a new kind of environment in which they can follow their paths and meet others who share the quest too. The Floating Sanctuary gives people, globally, a way to share their creativity with each other and have a fun, safe environment. The Floating Sanctuary will give people a chance to collaboratively explore and express thoughts--this is the key to confidence and well-being. Our ‘dream groups’ will change lives for the better. They engender motivation and excitement with every activity our community takes part in. 

Poverty, lack of equal education, lack of voice, gender discrimination all contribute to dreams being silenced. For too many teenagers in the world, it hurts to dream. Dreams are not being caught. Before dreams have the chance to become a reality, they are swept away and lost in a realm that cannot be accessed; there is no key to it. A study from San Diego State University psychology professor, Jean Twenge, finds that five times as many college and high school students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as people of the same age that were surveyed during the Great Depression. This stress leads to the inability to dream. 

Two of the most important reasons why teenagers are so stressed out are lack of family and community support. Studies have found that teenagers who feel more connected with their family report lower levels of depressive symptoms, have higher self esteem, and have a more adaptive use of their free time. Those who don’t feel connected with a community have more chances of being less confident and dealing with different mental health issues since they do not feel a part of a specific type of group.        

The Floating Sanctuary gathers all those lost dreams and returns them to life!

The Floating Sanctuary is providing the community missing in so many people’s lives. With the website and App, young people will get the chance to interact with other students who are dealing with similar issues -- the main one being that their dreams are being lost. 

With only a few steps to being placed in a dream group, teenagers can find a solution to why their dreams have not become reality. Students log in and are asked for their dream by filling out a questionnaire and submitting it to The Floating Sanctuary. They are then placed into Dream Groups with others who share their vision and the exploring begins. 

The moderators of our groups will ensure that everyone gets the chance to ‘voice their voice’. In the groups, everyone will discuss their dreams and why they are not getting the chance to achieve them, which will lead the group to helping each other out. When students know what their dream is and have an idea on what they want to do in life, university mentors will offer them an internship in their field of dreams.

Teenagers all over the world are dealing with the issues that The Floating Sanctuary is aiming to put an end to. Any mental health issues that are being formed from any type of social isolation will be resolved with the connections being made in our website/app. By using their voice and sharing their dreams, students will get a chance to have more confidence later on in life. A study done at Harvard by researchers at “Making Caring Common” has found that feelings of social isolation are rising for teenagers. The results show that “...36 percent of respondents to a national survey of approximately 950 Americans reported feeling lonely “frequently” or “almost all the time or all the time” in the prior four weeks, compared with 25 percent who recalled experiencing serious issues in the two months prior to the pandemic.” The goal of “Making Caring Common” is similar to what we are trying to achieve, which is for children to care about others, treat each other with respect and kindness, and have these interactions with each other to avoid social isolation. Developing children’s empathy and diligence is also an important part of their mission, as well as ours, since it will help them get a sense of their community. All of these goals are meant for the teenagers of The Floating Sanctuary to achieve in order to form a strong community. 

The researchers working on the Making Caring Common Project have been collecting data about how teenagers experience mental health issues and how these problems are being caused, and they have found that families, school, and other relationships are the main reasons. The Floating Sanctuary is also finding the causes to these problems and what the effects are, and this website will be the perfect way for people to take their mind off of these issues and focus on the positive moments of life, which are their hopes and dreams. Whoever takes part in The Floating Sanctuary will have feelings of happiness when they are talking about something they are passionate about and it will truly let everyone shine and keep their troubles to the side.

The Floating Sanctuary gives teenagers a chance to interact with their peers virtually, physically,and with a new form of communicating. Teenagers explore new information at their own pace, relaxed in a group or by themselves. Mentors will work with them if needed, and give them independent work to use the skills they learned. 

Scheduled meetings will take place monthly, and community members can set up meetings. Interacting with others online will help teenagers feel comfortable with peers in daily life. The teenagers will be inspired to form new relationships and fix relationships that have caused them to feel isolated. 

There is a website in progress for the Floating Sanctuary, and there are further additions to be made to completely finish the website. Mentors need to be gathered to guide students about topics they are experienced in. Branding and ‘click bait’  for the website also needs to spread to people all over the world; and the way we will do this is contact groups such as Harvard’s “Making Caring Common” and partner with those who have the same spirit as we.. This will give the Floating Sanctuary a chance to boost visibility and to get more people to join when everything is set in place. After all of this can happen, the idea will turn into reality and the website will be published for teenagers to share their dreams, learn new information, and have fun!