Never Limit Your Life. This is the motto and mantra of Derek Clark, a former foster child and at-risk youth who went from victim to victor, becoming a successful entrepreneur and international speaker. As the author of the I Will Never Give Up book series, his true-life trials and triumphs have inspired thousands to push themselves beyond their self-imposed limitations. Professional success always begins with personal outlook. With the right attitude, adversity is the spur to enrich the future of any enterprise. Hope and positivity are not only contagious, but the keys to higher productivity. In Never Limit Your Life: From Personal to Professional, Derek reveals the secrets behind his professional success. Find the confidence to overcome adversity, have no fear, and realize limits only exist in the mind. By cultivating drive, focus, and the courage to take action, employees will find their professional and personal lives opening up to new promise and fresh opportunities. Tap into your unlimited potential!

Derek Clark knows firsthand the trials of a hard-knock life. This book is based upon his childhood experience of parental abandonment, his life as a troubled youth and how he found the courage and the power to change the direction of his life. As a foster child for 13 years, Derek faced many extremes of humility, humiliation, loneliness, aggression, emotional distress, anger, violence and overwhelming anxiety. Becoming a teenager is an important time. Derek has learned some very difficult lessons growing up as a troubled teenager. Derek reveals how he overcame his adversities and how he triumphed in his personal life. He takes you down his road of lessons that he has learned of hate, anger, mistrust in adults, violent tendencies, rejection, lack of love, child abuse and the memories that have haunted his life. Derek believes he has successfully thrived as a leader in life because of his painful past. His truism is to make no excuses and become what you want to become. Derek now lives a life of happiness. He inspires youth and adults across this nation to never give up and to not let the past limit their incredible future. He believes it all comes down to a choice and taking responsibility for your life. He is proof that you don’t have to let adversity hold you down in life; you have a fascinating and inspiring destiny awaiting you.

Disable The Label is a groundbreaking guide that will offer professionals involved children and youth hope, stamina and the courage to improve the system. This book has evolved from the trenches; a sharing of knowledge and experiences from a child within the foster care system, joined by a foster parent who is also a counselor working for kids in the system. (Derek Clark and Shelly Bonnah) Disable The Label will challenge many of the accepted practices of the child welfare system and provide alternative ways to understand why kids behave in the ways that they do. This understanding will generate hope and restore dignity to the young people. This book will also give you insight into Derek Clark’s personal journey through foster care, and the key reasons that we believe Derek did not turn out addicted, incarcerated, or dead. This is Derek Clark’s story of resisting violence, shame, rejection and reclaiming his greatness. Who Am I and Where Do I Belong? may be the private question influencing the public behavior of many children and youth in the foster care system. As professionals in the social service sector, we will explore how this question has been grappled with by kids of all ages who are navigating the foster care system in search of a sense of belonging. We will also describe how children and youth are viewed through the eyes of adults who often know them only through a short window of time. With the introduction of a Response-Based Approach, we are contesting many commonly adopted orientations that pathologize, minimize, and ultimately harm children and youth. Best practices-ethical practices-must include the heightened awareness of our language customs in the social service field and must have a solid foundation rooted in our knowledge of grief, loss and traumatic experiences. Our Motivation and Orientation As caregivers and professionals working for youth in the foster care system, we frequently gather in living rooms, classrooms, and boardrooms to review our practices and strive toward improving the lives of kids in foster care. Similarly, foster kids are gathered disproportionately inside the justice system and are taking psychotropic medication at rates approximately 60% higher than that of kids in the general population (Lambe, 2009). These challenges are not revelations and this book will not hold all of the answers. What is offered instead is an honest view of a child’s experience growing up in the foster care system through his adult perspective, and a framework for professionals to view those experiences. Our belief is that when the adults who touch the lives of children in the child welfare system collectively respond to them differently, the system itself will profoundly change. Derek Clark & Shelly Bonnah An intimate view into the thoughts, emotions and actions of Derek Clark’s journey through childhood and foster care will answer questions that many professionals working with kids in care may not have the opportunity to ask. Although he grew up angry, violent, and rejecting of most adults in his life-Derek speaks openly about the fundamental elements that made a difference to his success. He is now an inspiring motivational speaker to both youth and adult audiences, the inspirational author of Never Limit Your Life and the award winning I Will Never Give Up book series, and he is also a successful singer/songwriter. Throughout this book, Derek will share an honest perspective regarding his 13 years in the San Francisco bay area foster care system. Shelly Bonnah is a foster parent, family therapist and the Chief Operating Officer for a social service agency providing support to children and youth in care. She has often tackled the challenges of anger, violence and rejection from a different vantage point than Derek. These behaviors are thrown into the center between two people who are attempting to form a relationship, sometimes making it virtually impossible to see one another through the chaos. Her adaptation of the Response-Based Approach has made it specific and applicable to youth in care, and offers a way for adults to understand, orient themselves, and respond differently to the grief, loss and traumatic experiences of youth.

Have you ever given up on God? Or been close to giving up on Him? I have. This is the story of a spiritual journey: from feeling abandoned by God to feeling embraced by God. For years I’d felt an oppressive weight bearing down on me: the burden of anger against God. Why did it feel like He never stuck up for me? Why didn’t He rescue me from the abuse, loneliness, and pain of a troubled childhood? Why didn’t He stop my parents from abandoning me to the foster care system? With every disappointment, I became more and more convinced He wasn’t there, wasn’t guiding me through my struggles. He either could not or would not comfort me during the hard times; the times I needed Him most. I didn’t fear God, and secretly despised Him. It was the drowning death and resuscitation of a young girl that forced me to rethink my contentious and unhealthy relationship with God. Knocked hard out of my irreligious complacency, I came to see tragedy, hope, suffering, and overcoming with new clarity and understanding. Adversity, I realized, can be one of God’s greatest blessings. This spiritual epiphany has filled me with immeasurable gratitude: for the breath of life, the goodness around me, and even for the sad, troubled past I had to overcome. This is a story about rediscovering God, and gaining awareness of His presence.

Rapping Dad Derek Clark’s book I Will Never Give Up is a revelatory story of resilience and redemption. A once deeply distressed and mistreated child, Derek Clark suffered parental abandonment and unthinkable child abuse before age five, when he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. His thirteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area foster care system were colored by extremes of humiliation, aggression, emotional distress, and overwhelming anxiety that left him “labeled” and “misdiagnosed.” Derek learned to cope in adversity and defied the artificial limitations imposed upon him by parents, adults, neurologists, psychologists, speech therapists, and social workers who mislabeled him. Eventually, he found hope and unexpected support from loving foster parents and a passionate social worker. Derek knows firsthand that the obstacles of dire circumstances can be a path to great accomplishments. His past has never held him back from achieving what he sets in his heart and mind to do. Former foster child/youth, Derek Clark, reveals how to connect to your child and build trust. This is his special memoir that will inspire you with hope and the strength to make it through great adversity. His story will inspire you to have hope and to never give up.

What terrifying things are going on at the Boatman Institute? There’s something very wrong with the place. They say they want to help lost and unwanted children, but Derek isn’t buying it. Are those screams coming from the basement? There's something very wrong with the place. They say they want to help the lost and unwanted children, but Derek isn't buying it. On the surface, the Boatman Institute is there to provide love, therapy, and a new home for kids, but Derek is about to learn the sinister truth. Who is Doctor Kriskoll, really? The man preaches mental health and redemption, but behind his eyes shines the outline of evil intentions. Derek’s world is built on secrets—but secrets don’t stay buried. The truth will bring Derek further from reality than he’s ever been, and deep into a mystery more terrifying than he could have imagined. These are the hidden histories of Derek Clark: murder, chaos, magic and madness. ENTER, IF YOU DARE!!! Find out more about Derek Clark at www.IWillNeverGiveUp.com

What happens when a mother’s love turns to murder? For Derek Clark, a shocking act of brutality will send him spiraling into worlds beyond our own. What if you returned from the dead? For Derek Clark, a second chance at life will leave him with supernatural powers. Will he use them for good or evil? What if everyone was out to get you? For Derek Clark, finding out why people want to control him is a matter of survival. Is he just a stooge in some sinister plan, or does he have a choice? Derek’s world is built on secrets—but secrets don’t stay buried. The truth will bring Derek further from reality than he’s ever been, and deep into a mystery more terrifying than he could have imagined. These are the hidden histories of Derek Clark: murder, chaos, magic and madness. ENTER, IF YOU DARE!!!