Community Identified Priorities
Polls
Matthew's Speech
Hello my name is Matt Taylor.
I am an ex-resident at Pauline’s Place youth shelterI would first like to start off with a bible verse
Proverbs 27:20
“Hell and Destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied”
This verse pretty much sums up my life in a nut shell
My life took a turn for the worst when my mother died of breast cancer when I was 12.
My father remarried 2 years later and my step mother and I never really got along.
On my 16th birthday I was kicked out of my home because of the rift between my step mother and myself. She waited until I was 16 to do this. Due to the fact that in order to kick a youth out they need to be 16.
Then I moved in with a co-worker for a few months, couch surfed for a month after that.
That is when I went to stay with a family friend.
March 2008 I convinced my father to let me move back in with them. He let me come back because I had no where else to go. This work out for a few months, then things started to get worse, so this time I choose to leave. I could not take the way she treated me. She always said I reminded her of my deceased mother.
August 2008 I moved in with a friend of mine who attended the same church as me. At that time I was 18 still had not completed my grade 12 and was working 3 jobs to pay my bills.
Oct 2008 I lost my job due to a major misunderstanding with my supervisor. Two jobs were enough to pay for rent not food.
Dec 2008 I then lost my second I was accused of stealing from my employment. I did not do this.
Once this happened I had not enough money from my final job to pay for rent. I had hit rock bottom. On New Years Eve 2008 I tried to commit suicide. Obviously I failed.
Next morning I went to my best friend house and told her parents I tried to commit suicide. They told me about Pauline’s Place Youth Shelter. I had never heard of this place.
I went to Pauline’s Place and there was one bed opening. I grabbed it. I went to Ontario Works got help with money that way.
At Pauline’s Place they helped me reenroll in school, the academic upgrade program at Sault College.
I was eating right for the first time since March 2008
It was safe place to sleep
There life skills programs helped me with interview skills, CPR and FIRST AID, attain my driver’s license, apartment hunting, and completing resumes. It even started me writing my own video game review column in Fresh Magazine which started off a column and now is a full page.
In March 2008 with the help from staff I was able to find room and board place to stay, that I could afford.
June 2008 with the help from the staff at Pauline’s Place I got help finding an apartment which is where I reside now.
Sept 2009- I am enrolled in Sault College academic upgrading and this is when I am right now.
I would now like to take the time to thank the staff at Pauline’s Place. They were like a family to me when I needed a family most, they taught me, and at times it seemed as if they loved me.
Without the help of Pauline’s Place I would either be in jail or dead.
Thank you.
Matt Taylor
