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Four thousand on-lookers watched as Derian Moffitt stepped on to center ice. Donned head-to-toe in a Cat-in-the-Hat costume, holding a pink broom, he laughed and joined a small pumpkin girl and 18 other costumed heroes in an epic broomball battle at a recent Giants hockey game. Up until recently, this kind of attention would have been a horrific nightmare for Derian. Since his earliest memory, Derian, now 20, has lived with crippling anxiety—sometimes so bad it left him unable to leave the house. “He has always feared what people would think of him,” says Youth Unlimited outreach worker Cassia Philipson—aka...

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Fifteen-year-old Olivia rolls her eyes. “But it’s so good now, they’re just going to change it” she says, referring to the grade eights entering the youth group where Youth Unlimited’s Sandra Reilly works. Reading Olivia’s face and recalling her backstory, Sandra suspects it will take a significant perspective shift before the incoming girls will ever feel welcome by Olivia. When she was in grade eight, Olivia experienced the pain of social exclusion. As a young, incoming grade eight, Olivia was on the fringes, hoping to befriend the older girls. Despite her efforts, she was met with rejection. Sandra was a...

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“I always assumed I’d know what the end of my rope would be like, but I didn’t. I’d seen and done horrible things—but this, this was the worst day of my life.” As a gang member, 17-year-old Matt Bergen had been in many dangerous situations before, but this was the first time he was unequivocally terrified. The police were closing in on him. “I knew I was in deep trouble,” says Matt. “I tried to end my life, but the gun jammed. I couldn’t believe it. So I prayed instead. I prayed a desperate prayer that if God was real,...

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Brittney Bertrand, 29, mother of two, was recently recognized by Metis Youth British Columbia as one of the five Metis Youth Role Models in BC for 2016. Brittney is being honoured for her efforts to promote healthy cultural engagement and balanced healthy living in her community. This enormous honour is most remarkable considering Brittney’s journey which has been anything but easy. Until eight years ago Brittney was entrenched in a cycle of poverty Young Brittney never knew when she’d next get to shower or where her next meal would come from. She tried hard to overcome the proverbial deck of...

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