Brookeville, Maryland (CNN)As a special education teacher, Richard Bienvenue worked with many troubled teenage boys.

  Is this the solution to 'throwaway kids'?

Brookeville, Maryland (CNN)As a special education teacher, Richard Bienvenue worked with many troubled teenage boys. For years, he observed the toll their surroundings took on them.

"The kids in my classes were from some pretty horrendous situations: dysfunction at homes, foster care, and abuse," said Bienvenue, who taught carpentry classes. "The tears you would see, the anguish they would go through, I saw a real need."

For more than two decades, Bienvenue has been helping struggling young men rebuild their lives. And he's using some unlikely tools: hammers and nails...