Hi there, my name is Briony. My story is a little heavy, but everything I have gone through has made me the empathetic, caring person I am today. Recently, I was given the amazing opportunity to become a part of the ‘YouthCO family’. It is yet another positive goal that I have been able to achieve since I left the streets 3 years ago. The past 15 years of my life have been anything but easy. My family abandoned me at a very young age and looking for that sense of ‘belonging’ I turned to the streets. I became pregnant a few years later and had a beautiful baby girl by the time I was 16. Unfortunately, my family decided that they would do a better job of raising her and took her not long after she was born. All of this together without the skills of coping that any teenager would learn from their family, led to just over 10 years of drug addiction. But it’s not all bad… 3 and a half years ago I met my partner, who showed me what love was and how life is supposed to be like. Since then I have gotten off the streets into an awesome apartment, I have been clean off of drugs for some time now with the help of methadone and counselling, gotten in touch with my daughter who is now 15, and been given this amazing position working at YouthCO. As ‘Drop-in Coordinator’ I am able to help those of my peers who are still struggling, whether it be housing, addiction, or just life in general. Being a “peer support worker” allows me to give them hope… to let them know that no matter what… they are worth it.
