Youth mentor Kwesi Johnson plays to a tough crowd: kids from Toronto's under-serviced and dangerous neighbourhoods, who are no strangers to gang violence.

Whether he's coaching basketball, working as a camp counsellor, helping with their homework or just talking to them, Johnson's message is constant: Respect yourself, respect others.

Having grown up in a rough neighbourhood himself, Johnson has street cred when he talks to youth.

"In grade 10, if I'd wanted to buy a gun, I knew how to get one. If I wanted to sell drugs - even easier. I knew who had it, who would buy it and for how much."

When a friend was shot to death after answering his door, Johnson redoubled his efforts to reach out to troubled kids.

"When you see someone in a coffin like that, it really affects you...The only thing I fear about death is that it might catch me off guard and I won't have helped enough people."

A recent graduate of Centennial College's Child and Youth Worker program, Johnson volunteers for a long list of agencies, including Malvern Family Resource Centre, the Anglican Church of the Nativity, Ryerson University's Tri Mentoring Program, the Alliance of Guyanese Canadian Organization and the Black Communities and Police Consultative Committee.

The 23-year-old says he's motivated by the potential for changing lives.

"I tell them, ‘Look at the alternatives. You have the choice not to take the easy route,'" he says. "For so many of these kids, it's easy, easy to get into fights and selling drugs."

Johnson grins as he shows off a hand-written letter he received from children in the Anglican Church of the Nativity's summer camp the year he was director. It shows a smiling stick-figure Johnson in a baseball cap, and thanks him being such a fun director, telling great jokes and taking them to fun places.

"It's what I'm all about: connecting with youth and allowing them to have experiences they would like to have. They're the next generation. They're so impressionable, but they will teach you, too - a lot about yourself and a lot about them."

Johnson is adamant his teachers at Centennial, and the opportunities they provided, helped shape his path and instil him with a passion for education, despite his dyslexia.

"The professors at Centennial were so engaging. They all have experience in the field and are willing to share that experience as part of our learning," he says.

Johnson says it could be years before he knows whether his message of respect got through to his young clients. Still, he was encouraged to recently hear from a young man he met at an anti-bullying school talk.

The youth had read in the paper that Johnson was one of three people awarded the 2007 Lincoln Alexander Award for Leadership in Eliminating Racial Discrimination. He told Johnson how impressed he was with his work and that he was now attending York University.

Johnson doesn't speculate on whether he influenced the young man to continue in school. Simply knowing he didn't take the easy route is enough.

For details about Centennial College's Child and Youth Worker program, visit www.centennialcollege.ca/childandyouthworker.