Shortly after I turned 13, Child Welfare took me into care. I was sent to a residential centre where girls with behavioural problems were 'evaluated'. My time there comes back to me now only in flashes of smells, images and sounds.
I was 17 and living on the streets. I had the education of technically an eighth-grader, but in reality, I had never had a formal education.
People are surprised by the poverty and think that I wasn't cared for. But that wasn't the case - I was deeply loved.
I guess more than anything, I just realized, okay, one day I had a home to live in and my family around me. The next day, I did not.
There was just so much attention that got focused on my story, and what that created was an opportunity for me to share what were the tools, what were the strategies, what was the thinking that had me break though those boundaries.
