Young people in its public housing townhouse complex north of Victoria Park and Finch avenues see few opportunities for themselves and not much of the world beyond, youth workers say.

In recent years, however, the once-overlooked area has received facilities it sorely needs, including a townhouse drop-in centre. Last week, the City of Toronto announced a $3.2-million shared space, a miniature community centre and day care, at the local public school.

And in a plaza across the street on Morecambe Gate, Elaine Robinson is ready to talk to youth from the area about how they can break the barriers holding them back.

Chester Le's Involve Youth Project, launching tomorrow from 6 to 8:30 p.m. inside the plaza beside Nicey's Food Mart, will show youth 14 to 24 from Steeles-L'Amoreaux (the city's name for Scarborough's northwest corner) how to work with systems that failed them, Robinson said.

But Robinson said she and the youth she's now meeting door-to-door in Chester Le will work on "internalized" barriers too, their image of themselves as people with few options.

"We have to pick that box apart and take them out of it," she said in an interview this week in the space where Tropicana Community Services says youth can "chill" as well as make decisions for their neighbourhood.

Part of the program is taking young people on field trips to places they may not go to themselves, like universities and colleges or City Hall. There, Robinson said, they'll meet successful people of colour to show them they too can succeed.

Involve Youth is aimed mainly at African-Canadians, too often disenchanted with school and the police, Robinson said. "A lot of them don't really know who they are."

Like Robinson, who went back to high school at age 30 to get her diploma, some might "have to go backwards for a bit to go forwards," she said.

"I was one of these youths not too long ago," Robinson said, adding the only difference was "I got a little bit more information."

Outside, a police surveillance camera on a nearby pole is a reminder of the community's bad times. In 2005, the year Chester Le Community Corner opened its doors and the city donated land for a community garden, Melbourne Glendon Whittick was shot dead walking to a bus stop after a barbecue at the Morecambe Gate complex.

A few months later, Hainsley McLean, father of two, was shot in the doorway of his home there.

The community space at Chester Le Junior Public School is scheduled to open in 2010 and over the next few months the city, public school board and local agencies will talk about what will be in it.

City officials say its total of 96 new child-care spaces, including 30 within the school for ages six to 12, will nearly eliminate a long-recognized shortage in the neighbourhood.

"It's a vote of confidence in the community," said Ward 39 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Mike Del Grande, adding Chester Le residents, after such significant investments, should be able to seize opportunities on their own.

"I think they need to fish on their own instead of giving them fish," he said this week.

The area had very little space for after-hours activities - sports, mentoring programs, homework clubs - that help children to be successful and the province doesn't fund those, Ward 20 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Trustee Soo Wong said.

"The cost of the permit (for activities) becomes prohibitive."

But with new cost-sharing by the city that should improve, Wong predicted. "For the first time, everybody's on the same page."