MONTREAL - It's a second chance for Asmick Jean-Jacques, and he's determined not to waste it.

Life as a gang member on the streets of Pierrefonds landed him behind bars for nine years. After a religious epiphany, Jean-Jacques turned his life around, now using his past to keep kids from experiencing his same troubled youth.

"Ten years ago, I made a different choice, where I decided, ‘You know what? I don't want to do that my whole life – on the streets and living the street life and the thug life," said Jean-Jacques.

Now the youth director of La Corde Youth Centre in Pierrefonds, Jean-Jacques serves young people daily breakfast and lunch and runs social programs

"This is more than a centre, this is home. As you can see, we laugh, we play. This is a family. We don't want to just feed them, we want to have a relationship with them," he said. "Working with kids and interacting with them and smiling… laughing. This is my environment; this is everything for me."

The centre is found in the Cloverdale district of Pierrefonds, one of the largest public housing hubs in Canada, and where he spent his troubled youth.

Now a pastor, Jean-Jacques is inspiring other young people to create positivity in their lives.

Omid Raheme is one of those young people. The 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan barely spoke English when he began working with Jean-Jacques.

"He said, ‘Come, you don't want to go to school? You need to finish. You need to go to college, work. You need to do your life. When you wake up in the morning you should tell yourself you're not waking up for nothing, you're working," he said, explaining how Jean-Jacques kept him on the right track.

Teen mom Jessica Francois is also thriving thanks to help from the pastor. Life for the 18-year-old and her 15-month-old son Darius was tough before she had his support.

"It was discouraging, because you're 16 and then you have a newborn, and then you have to go to school... well, you have to get that habit of going back to school. That was hard," she said.

The youth centre is also a certified school, where students can obtain a high school diploma under Jean Jacques-Jacques's watchful eye.

"I feel like I'm passing and… I wish to go to college," said Raheme.

Francois also has high hopes.

"I want to become a doctor," she said. "I'm hoping."