By Jessica Anstice
Paige Baker revealed how she turned her life around after being born in a jail cell, jumping from foster home to foster home and attending “who knows” how many schools.
What the 17-year-old Berwick girl has been through is almost unimaginable for some.
“I am the fourth of my mother’s eight biological children and have spent most of my life separated from them and living in a large number of foster care and residential placements,” Paige said.
“Until recently, I haven’t ever attended school regularly and I can’t even remember how many high schools I’ve attended – I think it might be eight.”
A rough upbringing unfortunately led the young girl to turn to alcohol and drug addiction before attempting to end her own life.
“Every person I felt attached to left me and I got used to being alone,” she said.
“I could not see anyway to create a positive future for myself.”
Although, at the time, she did not know how to create a positive future for herself, she knew one thing was sure – she wanted a bright future.
Paige eventually decided she needed to let go of everything that was holding her back.
“I just needed support to make it happen,” she added.
“Most kids in care change case workers regularly – there’s very little continuity of care.
“In my experience, people with very little knowledge of me sit and make major decisions about my life and I don’t have a voice.”
With a really strong desire to support young people with similar experiences to her, Paige recently went down the path of public speaking – with a goal to help others.
She was invited by South Eastern Victoria Region’s Lookout Education Support Centre principal Murray Geddes to speak at a conference in September 2019.
“I used to think I wanted to be a lawyer but I’m learning there are lots of different pathways for me to improve the out of home care and educational systems,” she said.
The focus of the very first conference she presented at was for professionals to hear from a young person currently navigating the system and learn strategies for supporting their clients and students to achieve positive outcomes.
“I was really nervous and scared to share so much of my past with 600 strangers but my desire to help other kids enabled me to get through it,” Paige said.
“The response from the audience was so positive and it motivated me to continue being a voice for kids that so often don’t have one – particularly indigenous students who are overrepresented in the system.”
Paige has also spoken at an Operation Newstart Casey graduation about her experiences since completing the program in 2018.
More recently, she was a keynote presenter with Glenn Manton at the SWAMP Cluster PD, delivered at Kooweerup Secondary College.
“I don’t think most teachers and youth workers understand things from the perspective of a young person,” she explained.
“They often hear from adults who’ve managed to create successful lives for themselves but not all the kids who get completely lost in the system.
“I want to remind people that children living in out of home care haven’t done anything wrong – we’re often penalised for something that is not our fault.”
Paige said the most surprising thing that has come out of this is the principals wanting her to speak.
“I was so surprised that principals, people who have generally wanted to suspend or expel me from school, wanted to hear me speak,” she said.
“They thanked me and then asked more questions.
“It has really helped to build my confidence – I’m usually really anxious in front of crowds and people I don’t know.”
