Modest Rebecka counselled teens
‘Some have money and some don’t’
“Rebecka advocates for the youth as one of them, bridging a gap between staff and youth.”
— Stewart Tracey
In her 20 years, Rebecka Hill has lived in more places and experienced more turmoil than most people do in a lifetime.
The winner of the Courage to Come Back Award in the youth category also has risen above her chaotic past to settle into a stable life with her fiancé, two-year-old daughter and steady job.
“I’m kind of shocked [to win the award],” said Hill, who lives in Kelowna. “I’ve done a lot but it’s nothing, it’s just life.”
The less than ideal home life led to her going out on her own before most youth her age have their own part-time jobs.
Her father worked as an independent construction contractor and followed the work.
“I was pretty poor,” she said of her childhood. “We probably moved once every year.” She doesn’t know how many schools she attended.
“Six or more. It didn’t bother me,” she said. “I thought it was normal. I knew we didn’t have money. I knew some of my friends had more. That’s what it’s like, some people have money and some people don’t.”
As she entered into her teens, she got into conflicts with her father and Hill ran away from home“a few times,” the first time at 13, and her father kicked her out of his house more than once. At 15, she ended up in foster care, and at 16 qualified for the government’s independent-living program, where she lived in a basement suite below a mentor family.
“But not for very long. I got kicked out. For having people over and doing drugs.”
Hill started smoking marijuana when she was nine or 10. By 15, she was into crystal meth, to which she became addicted.
“I ended up going from there [mentor suite] to a tent,” she said. “It wasn’t really a tent, it was living outside with some other people.”
Her story includes an arrest for firearm possession, crashing a stolen vehicle, dealing drugs and angry and aggressive behaviour toward peers and others, according to a nomination letter.
She worked a series of odd jobs and attended a special school program, getting as far as Grade 9.
“Then I met my fiancé,” she said. “We were both f---ked up [doing meth] and that’s how I met him.”
Hill, who was 17 and in foster care again, gave up drugs by enrolling in a residential recovery program, and the pair moved in together, and “a couple of months later, I got pregnant.”
Today, Hill works for a recreational-vehicle company and plans to upgrade her education and become a mechanic.
She credits the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club and its drop-in centre that she visited almost daily between ages 14 and 18 for helping her to kick the drugs and turn her life around.
“It did a lot of good for me,” she said. “If it weren’t for the drop-in, I wouldn’t be where I am. They definitely helped me out.”
She worked for the club for several months last year and said she was able to give back by counselling other youth.
“Rebecka advocates for the youth as one of them, bridging a gap between staff and youth in some cases when it seems like both are speaking different languages and Rebecka becomes the interpreter,” said the Okanagan branch’s area director, Stewart Tracey, in his nomination letter.