Many teens in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley have been able to turn their lives around,with the help and guidance of a dedicated youth worker.

Russ Sanche runs Portal Youth in Kentville, N.S. The facility is a drop-in centre for teens and offers anyone over the age of 18 a place to stay.

“You find different ways to get the money you need to feed yourself, or get cigarettes, or pot, or the things we were doing,” says 17-year-old Chance Johnstone, who has spent time living on the streets.

“I seen myself dead or in jail for the rest of my life by the time I was 20.”

But Johnstone’s life began to change when he met Sanche.

“These kids are incredibly resilient and I admire a lot of them because they're going through challenges I can't even fathom, so it means not waiting for them to come to us, but for us to go to them,” says Sanche.

For the second year, Sanche is offering an outreach and development program and, for the first time, he has been able to hire some teens as youth leaders to assist in the program.

“The youth come every morning and we do a check and we look at obstacles, barriers, strengths, and then we start to look, what do they need together, as a group, watching their backs and how to get to the next step of accomplishing what their own individual goals are,” says Sanche.

One teen, who wished to remain anonymous, says he has done a U-turn in just months and does not want to look back.

“I feel amazing, I feel like an entirely different person,” says the teen.

These days, instead of recruiting his friends for crime, he brings them to the youth group.

“I had it worse than most people and I found my way out, so I just want to show people it's not impossible to get out of any situation you're in,” says the teen.

With a lot of hard work, they can now talk about education, careers, and their future.

“I was in trouble with the law, I had no place to stay, I had no money, and everything has changed,” says Johnstone. “I've been in counselling, I am not the same person I was eight months ago, before Russ came along.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl