A youth leader from Okotoks has been presented with the inaugural Lieutenant Governor's Circle Donald S. Ethell Award For Mental Health Service.

The award was created in 2015 to recognize youth who are leading efforts to make Alberta communities a safe place to talk about mental health.

Lieutenant Governor the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell, and Former Lieutenant Governor Donald Ethell presented the award to Cole Whalley, who is on the path to recovery from a severe crack-cocaine addiction.

Whalley was propelled into drug use after his grandfather committed suicide, and has been battling with it for many of his teenage years.

The award was given to him for his strength in recovery from his own addiction, as well as the volunteer service he has offered to the Foothills School Division Summer School Youth At Risk class.

Whalley says the award pushes him to work even harder to help others understand drug addiction, and reduce the stigma around it.

"It encourages me to go out in my community and shed light on the topic of mental health and addiction to people who are hesitant in approaching the topic and conversation," he says. The amount of people who showed up today is amazing, it truly is an honour. It motivates me to want to continue what I've been doing so far."

He says says the first step to battling addiction issues is reducing the stigma.

"If you can lessen it in any way, shape or form and realize that these are people too. These are people that are struggling on the daily, same with anybody who has cancer, they need to have ongoing treatments, they need to have consistency in their lives. You need to treat addiction the same way you would treat a physical illness."

Whalley says while awards like this are a step in the right direction, there is still a lot to be done to improve the lives of at risk youth.

"What is offered in the city and in the Foothills is very limited, so much so that when I was trying to recover I had to go out of country and out of province. Out of country was my first time at 16, I was so young that nobody would take a case as severe as mine, it was a $175 a day habit."

He says working with youth in FSD's 180 program has been an incredible experience

"Being able to put ourselves in their shoes, and try to help them grow and see them as people, as equals. It's amazing to see what happens when you let a student feel equal to their teacher or their superiors."

To learn more about the 180 program click here.