Founder Story

Hi, I‘m Dagma Koyi. Founder and Executive Director of REST Centres, a journey that started years ago, when I almost found myself homeless.

At 20 years old, I moved to Canada from St. Lucia to live with my father and begin my University education. Like so many families, we had our problems, which finally caused our relationship to break down in under a year. With nowhere to go, I found myself homeless.

Unfortunately, my struggles didn’t end there. I couldn’t find employment because I lacked Canadian experience and without housing and financial assistance, I had no choice but to drop out of school. Over the next three years, I moved seven times to five cities, living with friends and out of my luggage while I worked to get back on my feet. Those were dark years that looked nothing like the safe and settled upbringing I’d left behind. Like anyone would, I began to question my life’s purpose.

Through meditation, prayer and my faith in God, I started to receive inspiration about providing shelter and support services to help others avoid the same hardships and rehabilitate youth who were homeless. I will never forget the promise I made in my journal, to follow that purpose “when I was wealthy as Oprah”!

Three years into my journey, I was able to get back to school while working part time in Financial Services to make ends meet. After graduating, I began working with Young Street Missions as an employment counsellor which put me in direct contact with homeless youth every day. Their stories touched me deeply and my experience there showed me just how great the need really was. Not only did my compassion grow, but I learned about the complex and interrelated issues behind youth homelessness including mental health, domestic abuse, systematic prejudice, addiction and others. The common thread in all of their stories is that nobody chooses to be homeless and finding your way out of it, comes with tremendous struggle even in Canada. If only there was more access to affordable housing, maybe we wouldn’t lose so many youths to homelessness each year. Even though I believed in the work I was doing, it didn’t afford me the means to really pursue my dreams and so, my sense of being unfulfilled only deepened. Little did I know, my journey was just beginning.

Years later, I received a message at church that transformed my mindset when the Pastor said, “Faith is the currency of heaven and not cash, therefore it takes faith to make your God inspired dreams happen. Your first step is to believe.”

I quickly realized I’d allowed myself to be limited by my financial resources alone. If I wanted my dreams to come true, I was going to have to take action. So, I enrolled in a business incubator at Humber College where my mentor Mark Stoiko, guided me through the process of starting a charity and served as our first board chair.

On July 23, 2015 REST Centres was born. Like the youth that we serve, were still a young organization and growing. And while I may not have equalled Oprah’s success just yet, I’m continually driven by the impact we make in so many young lives, which is all the reason I need to keep going.