Conferences & Training CentreApril 23, 2015 – “What doesn’t break you only makes you stronger” is an appropriate theme that represents Paige’s life experience. At 12, Paige experienced a very traumatic event and acted out, sending her life on a downward spiral. “I felt no one understood me or was there for me, and I didn’t want to talk about things or be around people,” recalls Paige. “I started running away from home to be with my friends and was completely disrespectful to my parents.” Her father called social services and had Paige placed in a Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) for seven days. From there she went to a co-ed youth shelter in the North End where she continued to run away for weeks at a time and also started taking a variety of drugs, including ecstasy. “It was a horrible, horrible time,” says Paige. Near the age of 14, she was placed in a Marymound group home. She started to improve but had a setback and lashed out by running away several times and continued her drug usage. Paige was sent back home to her father by the Manitoba Youth Centre after being charged with uttering threats, and lived with him until she was 15. Her downward spiral continued as she then began to experiment with heavier drugs. “It was a really a bad time for me, as I was in and out of the youth centre until I was about 15 and a half,” Paige remembers. While under the heavy influence of drugs, she and a friend committed a robbery and Paige was sent back to the Youth Centre for the last time. She was given the ultimatum of either serving her 18 months probation there or to accept house arrest with the probation. She reluctantly selected the house arrest option with probation and was placed in Marymound’s Alternatives secured living unit. After getting over the initial shock of being in the unit, Paige realized she wanted to get better. She started to closely follow the program and open up to staff. “I ended up just loving the people that worked at Alternatives as they cared so much about my total well-being and helped get me back into the community,” says Paige. “They listened to me, and heard me when I was having so many issues.” Attending Marymound School since she was 12, Paige fondly recalls the Marymound School staff. “They were amazing in helping me overcome obstacles that enabled me to focus and win numerous school awards,” Paige says. “The school staff, along with the clinicians and unit workers, gave credit to my father for staying by my side and working with them through it all. My Dad was a huge support for me, if he wasn’t around I doubt they would have been able to help me the way I needed.” In May of 2013 Paige left Marymound, feeling whole again. She moved back home to her loving father and has been there ever since. This past year, after previous seasonal part-time jobs in retail and the food industry, Paige found a job at a local family restaurant that she loves. She is head hostess. ”It’s a small restaurant, and I have family working there – four cousins and my auntie. This is where I’m going to stay for quite a while,” she says proudly. Now 18, Paige is planning on living at home while she attains her GED and then plans to attend university to get her psychology degree. “I want to help others the way Marymound helped me,” says Paige. “I couldn’t image doing anything else because my life was turned completely around by the help of everyone here. And even though I can’t stand what happened to me, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be me.”
Listen to Paige’s CBC Information Morning Radio Interview here.