Three young women and one young man carry fresh hopes for Chester Le, a Scarborough community that has seen more than its share of pain.

The quartet of residents from the public housing complex near Victoria Park and Finch avenues are IBM Canada employees, thanks to a hiring program the Markham-based computing giant started to help its neighbours in Toronto.

The four will soon be joined by two others.

And though none of the youths appeared when television crews and Mayor David Miller crowded into Chester Le's little drop-in centre this week, Miller predicted each would each finish their placement with new poise and strength.

"These six young people are going to walk down the street, look everybody in the eye and say, 'I work for IBM'," he said at Chester Le Community Corner.

Chester Le Boulevard's public townhouses are part of Steeles-L'Amoureaux, one of 13 "priority neighbourhoods" the city named last year for action to prevent violence and add support services.

"A kid from Chester Le has the same right to work on Bay Street as a kid from Rosedale," the mayor said during the Monday press conference.

"Just because a kid's living in a low-income neighbourhood doesn't mean they're not full of skill."

But Miller acknowledged parents in low-income areas are less able to show their children the way to high-paying careers, and that many employers have ingrained prejudices against hiring them.

"I think we break that by showing employers that it works" when companies hire in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, he said.

The IBM interns say their six-month placements are going well, said Eric Cheung, program manager of North West Scarborough Youth Centre, which recruited the youths from Chester Le and hopes other employers "will step up" and hire more.

Two of the youth are university students who will use the money to pay for school.

Since December, a pair of the interns have worked at IBM's warehouse and distribution centre in Markham and the others at the company's Steeles Avenue headquarters.

Upstairs at the drop-in centre, Miller shook hands with Amalan Viyagaratnam, a Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute student teaching Chester Le residents computer skills such as how to set up a website, how to use MicroSoft Word, PowerPoint and other software.

"They pick it up quickly," Viyagaratnam said.

Things at the Community Corner have improved a lot since Toronto Community Housing offered the townhouse as a gathering place last year. A cooking program, employment program and homework club are all up and running. said co-ordinator Mayleen Singhroy, who also runs monthly seminars, part of a series called Breaking the Cycle of Violence, at Chester Le Junior Public School.

The next one is at 6 p.m. tomorrow evening.

"Knowledge is power, so we try to bring as much information as we can," Singhroy said.

IBM is also helping supply the centre with some of its other needs, everything from children's books to bicycles and will pay for renovations to expand its study area upstairs.

"I think this is the beginning of that hope," Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt) said Monday. "We're teaching our youth here that there is hope, that they don't have to be marginalized, that they can be part of the mainstream."