Try something like this:
<a href="/" class="home-link">FORUM</a>
<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8.20">
$(function() {
$("a.home-link").click(function() {
require("discourse/lib/url").default.routeTo(
$(event.currentTarget).attr("href")
);
return false;
});
});
</script>
Where you give your link the classname home-link and run a tiny script when it’s clicked to force it to load within the app.