Young people are more than the behaviors adults are trying to change.

WHY THE THIRD SPACE

The Third Space Approach was born, in part, from my own experience as a queer, biracial, neurodivergent young person. I learned early that belonging and opportunity were often conditional on fitting dominant expectations. When I could not, I internalized the belief that something was wrong with me. I came to see myself as an outsider, and the ways I survived that alienation were met with punishment and exclusion.

Later, working alongside young people whose identities, nervous systems, cultures, and experiences of complex trauma did not fit those same expectations, I recognized the pattern: distress and survival strategies treated as defiance, then met with surveillance, isolation, and punishment rather than safety, connection, and community.

This work is not about helping young people better conform to systems that were not built for them. It asks us to change the conditions around them, to challenge cultures of control and narrow, capitalist measures of achievement and success, and to build communities grounded in dignity, interdependence, and care. Money and accomplishment can create security and opportunity, but they are not the substance of a meaningful life. What shapes our lives most deeply is connection: the relationship we have with ourselves, the relationships we build with one another, and our sense of belonging within the larger world.

Belonging is not something young people should have to earn.

It is the foundation from which growth becomes possible.