Derek Godin wants to be the person he needed when he was a young man.
As a youth, Godin described his childhood as having a lot of hurdles.
Neither of his parents were around much, his dad worked at a job which kept him away a lot, and he rebelled against his mom who was trying to raise him on her own.
He would spend his summers in the Lower Mainland with his much older brother.
During his time on the coast, he was using alcohol and drugs and became associated with gangs.
After some violence touched his life, he moved back to Williams Lake, but continued using drugs and even began using meth.
Finally, after losing some good friends to drugs and hitting rock bottom, he met a woman. Once she told him he couldn’t be with her if he was going to keep living that lifestyle, he cleaned himself up and stopped using both drugs and alcohol.
The pair moved in together and his parents helped him dig himself out of debt.
Godin then took stock of where he was at and decided he wanted to help people who were experiencing the same challenges on the street he faced as a young person.
He took the Human Service Worker diploma through Thompson Rivers University, which he said gives a good foundation for a range of service work from counselling to social work, youth work and nursing.
While he was going through the program, he did a practicum at Educo Adventure School, which was a natural fit for him because he had always been into sports and doing things outdoors - including racing BMX bikes when he was younger.
While at Educo, Godin worked with a class of young people who went to a rough school in Vancouver.
“I watched them all go from being all plugged into being unplugged,” he said of the experience, noting it was transformational.
This cemented his desire to work with youth and to try and support youth who were struggling. He said if he could be there to help them during those tough times, then his life would be worthwhile.
Godin and his wife eventually grew apart, and have since divorced, though he credits her with helping him get sober. They did not end up having children because they were so focused on their careers during their marriage.
He has now been working in child and youth care for 13 years, starting out a BGC Williams Lake, then going to the Child Development Centre for about five years, before returning to BGC. He said he feels like he has been at the youth centre most of his life, because he himself would hang out there and access the NOOPA drop-in programs when he was young.
Even though it can be hard some days, he said when someone comes up to him later in their life and tells him he did or said something to them that really made a difference or changed their life in some way, it makes it all worthwhile.
Godin will be leading some of the BGC Sprockids program this year and also heads up an RC (remote control) car club. He constructed the RC course for the community in Boitanio Bike Park with the help of youth. He has continued to help maintain the course for seven years.
He likes getting kids up off the couch and seeing them get engaged.
“I’m a big kid and that’s how I hold onto my youth, by being a big kid,” he explained.
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