I was born in Deer Lake Newfoundland in 1961. At the time I was the 4th child born to my mother and father. I moved to Toronto when I was about 11 months old with just my dad after my parents separated.

Shortly after our move my Dad was having a hard time managing the four children and working full-time so he placed my three older siblings with three of my Aunts to be cared for. Because of my young age I was placed in a foster home as no one in my family was able to look after me. I lived in that same foster home until just before my ninth birthday when my mother moved to Toronto and took me out of the home just before I could be legally adopted by the family. When I was 15 I moved in with my Aunt and met my first girlfriend with whom I had my first child. After things didn’t work out with her I met my future wife with whom I had 2 children. We divorced after 15 years of marriage and that was the first time that I experienced the shelter system in Toronto. For the next 15 years I was in and out of different shelters in the GTA and also lived with some family members for short periods of time. In the spring of 2013, after a short stay at Cornerstone I was introduced to the Community Support Team at Cornerstone. Since working with the CST I have been able to secure my own bachelor apartment with the help of a rent subsidy and worked towards completing my high school diploma: a task that I have set out to complete on 5 different occasions and now have fully completed. I feel that my childhood and much of my adult life has been characterized by instability. In the last 15 years I estimate that I have lived in about 20 different places in and around Toronto and Oshawa. Since working with Cornerstone I have been able to find some much needed stability in my life which has allowed to me to better myself by settling down and working towards my goals.