I’ll never forget the day I got the phone call.
“Mom, it’s me. Please don’t hate me forever. I’ve been arrested for shoplifting.”
My heart sank.
My youngest daughter? My smart, athletic, funny Grade 11 honours student? She was already dreaming about university and applying to schools, including some in the U.S. In an instant, my mind went to all the places a parent’s mind goes: What had happened? What would this mean for her future? Could one terrible decision change the course of her life?
When I arrived at the store, I found my daughter sobbing with two police officers. One of them explained that she would have to be handcuffed and charged. I was devastated and scared.
Later, she told me she had been caught up in something so many teenagers struggle with: wanting to belong, fit in and prove herself to her peers.
Thankfully, one of the officers saw another way forward and helped connect her to an alternative measures program.
Quickly and efficiently, we were connected to the Centre for Youth Justice and Success. Our life line through this stressful time. Here an experienced volunteer with a Youth Justice Committee walked alongside our family as we navigated the next steps. With the Youth Justice Committee’s support, encouragement and reassurance, my daughter took responsibility for her actions and completed her agreement. It was a process that held her accountable, while also giving her something every young person deserves: the chance to learn from a mistake without having it define their future.
The charges were ultimately dropped. And surprisingly the experience opened up conversations in our family that brought us closer together. Who knew that such a scary thing could have the silver lining it did. I’m not sure any good could have come out of the situation had the Centre for Youth Justice and Success not been here in our moment of need.
I later learned that the people serving on Youth Justice Committees are volunteers. I was amazed that people in our community would give their time to help a young person they didn’t even know find her way forward. Since then, our family has tried to give back, through both our time and financial support of Calgary Youth Justice Society.
And my daughter?
She got into the U.S. school she had been hoping for.
The day we dropped her off, I watched her walk toward this next chapter of her life and felt the tears come. I couldn’t stop thinking about how differently that moment might have looked if, at one of the most vulnerable points in her young life, someone had only seen her mistake.
Instead, they saw her potential.
That second chance didn’t erase what happened. It allowed her to learn from it, take responsibility and keep moving forward.
As her mom, I will never forget what that chance meant to her.
Or to all of us.