My name is Regina Goforth-Lewis. I was born and raised in Michigan. As a young child, I went to four different elementary schools. I ended up graduating High School from the last of those schools, Southfield Christian High School. It was here that I decided I would eventually work with youth in some way. My life took a small detour before I got to that point. I attended the Oakland Community College shortly after graduating, however, decided to work full time and pursue a different career avenue: Retail Management. Although this was exciting and perfect for me at the time, I knew it was not my calling. Around the age of 22, I decided to enroll back to in college part time and follow the original dream of working with young people. I studied under the Social Work/Mental Health field. I never completed the program to receive my Associates Degree; however, I do have 66 credit hours accumulated. During this time, I loved college and my internship, which later became a fulltime job at the H.A.V.E.N. I worked there as a Supervised Visitation Specialist for many years. While working in the social work field and also in the communications field, I met and married my husband and we started a family. I always knew if it was feasible I would want to be able to stay at home with my children for as long as possible and I was fortunate enough to be able to do this for almost 13 years. Along the way I held down several part time jobs to earn extra income for the family, these jobs always included working with youth to some degree, such as a shift supervisor at the local Parks and Recreation Center’s concession stand or at the Elementary School where the children attended as a lunch room monitor. I also volunteered time at my church as a Sunday school teacher, a senior high youth advisor and a Deacon. I read to students at the library and taught American Sign Language (ASL) to hearing children. After 15 years, my children’s father and I divorced. I currently find myself as…
