This is my place – the importance of belonging
Written for children’s mental health week 2026 by Dr Seb Thompson and some of the young people within the YMCA Robin Hood Group.
Belonging is more than being included or allowed to take part. At its core, belonging is a felt sense of being accepted for who you are, not just how you behave or what you achieve. It is about being known, seen, listened to, and treated with respect. Belonging grows through relationships over time; it needs to be nurtured with consistency, safety, and trust. Belonging allows us to thrive.
When children and young people experience true belonging, it provides a foundation for mental wellbeing. Feeling that you have a place where you are valued helps build self-worth and emotional development. It supports young people to regulate their emotions, to cope with stress, and to develop a stronger sense of identity. Belonging creates the conditions where curiosity, confidence, and resilience can grow.
When belonging is missing, the impact can be significant. Feeling excluded, invisible, or “out of place” can contribute to anxiety, low mood, shame, or withdrawal. For some young people, this distress may show up as behaviour that others then find difficult, when in reality it reflects a need for connection, safety, understanding and ultimately belonging.
Knowing that there is at least one trusted person, one safe space, or one part of the local community where you matter can make it easier to cope with challenges and to seek support when it’s needed. For children and young people, belonging can be the difference between feeling alone with their struggles and feeling held and supported through them.
There is no health without mental health, and there is no mental health without a sense of belonging. This poses the questions of whether or not we are doing enough as a society to look at the environments, relationships, and communities we create, and whether they truly allow children and young people to say, with confidence, “this is my place.”
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