Project Ibasho
A Place Where Boys Can Be Fully Human.
Ibasho
/ee-BAH-sho/
Ibasho is a Japanese term translating to “a place where you can be yourself,” signifying a sense of belonging, safety, and comfort. It represents a physical, social, or mental space where an individual feels accepted and valued without needing to perform a role.
Every human being is wired for connection. We are each born with a longing to belong. But the societal conditions that used to help us flourish — shared spaces, face-to-face time, the rhythms of in-person life — are disappearing. And no generation has felt the shift more acutely than the one growing up now.
Young people — Gen Z and younger — are bearing the brunt of the societal shifts.
And boys and young men are bearing the cost most visibly. Societal messages tell them that “to be a man” they need to suppress their emotions, hide their need for connection, and perform a version of manhood that leaves them alone inside. They are asked to be less than fully human.
Boys and young men are struggling in four interconnected areas: relational disconnection, mental health, education, and work and purpose. These are not problems any one family, school, or institution can solve alone.
Project Ibasho’s Vision
Project Ibasho exists to bring people together to understand this crisis of boys and young men and to problem-solve together. We do this through community gatherings, policy research, and civic engagement.
Through our policy work, we are learning that the relational crisis of boys and young men is connected to gender polarization and to the health of our democracy.
Our ultimate goal is to create a healthy and connected society for Gen Z and younger, starting with boys and young men.
Our Work
In March 2025, Project Ibasho’s founder, Wendy Jan Wong, partnered with Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco to host a conference on Raising Connected Boys in a Disconnected World. Parents and educators from Cathedral School for Boys invited others — more parents and educators, along with community leaders and elected officials — from across the region to join them in learning about the crisis of boys and young men. Attendees came with a concern but limited knowledge.
Many left with something they didn’t expect — a shared sense of clarity, purpose, and a feeling of connection with other people in the room. Together, we saw glimpses of a path forward.
That is what Project Ibasho is building toward on a larger scale. Not a single event. A movement of communities, gathering to understand this crisis and build something better together — a healthier and more connected society, starting with boys and young men. When adults come together with purpose and connection, they model the very thing they are trying to create for the younger generation.
We are also doing the policy research needed to understand the landscape of the crisis and to identify its upstream root causes.
A Multigenerational Effort
Those of us who have been around longer have a few things we can share with the younger generation to create a healthy and more connected society. We have the resources and influence to start this work on their behalf. And we have the lived experience of what connection, without tech, feels like — the kind that builds resilience, belonging, and meaning.
There will come a day when everyone on the planet is a digital native; when those of us who are not digital natives will no longer be around. Today is the moment for us to share our knowledge and work together.
This is how we build something new together. The younger generation creating the world they want to live in — with the benefit of everything we know about how humans are designed to flourish.
A Note from the Founder
Our work begins with boys and young men — not because other genders don’t matter, but because each of us is called to the piece we are closest to. As a mother of two sons, this is my piece. I understand their world from the inside. I trust that others are called to work on the pieces around girls, other genders, and other communities. When each of us works on the piece that calls to us — the whole benefits.
“Every young man who has ever wondered, ‘Does my life matter?’ deserves to hear, ‘Your life absolutely matters — simply because you exist.’”
Wendy Jan Wong