"I stayed at home for a long time after the attack," says Reis Stanislaus, 19, recalling an incident two years ago when he and his younger brother Stacy were set on by a group of 15 youths.

"We were on the way home from the cinema, waiting at a bus stop when these boys saw us from the top of the bus. Bang, that was it."

"I'm not going to lie... I get scared on the road," adds 17-year-old Stacy. "Some kids out there decide they just don't like you. That's good enough these days for it to happen."

The "it" is inevitably means being stabbed, beaten or robbed.

With a grimace Stacy, who lives in east London but joins his brother every Friday night for the Pathways2Progress programme at the West Kensington Estate, in Lillie Road, explains how he has to 'represent' three postcodes; E8, E5 and E9 just to stay out of trouble.

"If I get stopped and forget to say one of those, that's enough for someone to kill me. It does my head in."

"You want to know why do they do it?" asks West Ken local Luke Angol, 17, with a wry smile. "Wrong area: stepping on their trainers by accident, making too much eye contact... anything. I've had someone say I'm wearing their colour. I was wearing white and white's 'their' colour. What can you say to that?"

From their size and demeanour they do not look like natural victims but Reis, Stacy and Luke have all faced harrassment and threats on the street.

They accept it as part of daily life and do their best to avoid conflict at the same time as looking capable of handling it.

Sitting in resident's hall office, the trio strike confident and articulate figures, determined to make a difference to themselves and their communities.

Reis, who admits to being a handful at school, recently passed his driving test paid for by overtime shifts at Tesco's.

Not to be outdone, his brother - who left school without any grades - wants to be driving next year. "I'll chuck away my Oyster card, when I get there."

Luke has just finished performing in 365 - a play shown at the Lyric, Hammersmith.

All three are training to become mentors to the younger children in the area. But they know all too well the grip gangs, drugs and fear has over local youngsters.

Enter Twilight Bey, a 38-year-old father of three whose knowledge of social intervention schemes was forged in the gang-ridden projects of his native Los Angeles.

As an 18-year-old he helped to bring together the warring Bloods and Crips gangs in LA's notorious Watts and Compton districts.

Respected for his even temper and contacts within both camps he slowly helped initiate dialogue despite his young age.

His efforts resulted in the 1992 ceasefire which halted, albeit temporarily, a hyper-violent cycle of murder and retribution.

"In London we're still at the infancy stage of the development of gangs...it can be turned around quite significantly if we act now," he says. "But each teenage death that's linked to a group or gang sows the seeds of long-term conflict.

"Kodjo Yenga was killed in Hammersmith Broadway and a lot of the kids in the area knew him, they start to think can this happen to me? Fear takes over and everyone starts arming themselves or thinking others they meet are armed. We're already seeing the consequences of that."

Twilight's Pathways2Progress scheme, sponsored by Kensington Housing Trust and H&F Homes, aims to help youngsters locked into the estate mentality, at risk of failing school or getting into trouble to gain a perspective on their lives.

The 'progress' comes through the graduation from theFriday night drop-ins, to leadership sessions building social skills and confidence to mentoring schemes linking youths' aspirations to jobs.

On most Fridays, after an hour or two of table tennis, Twlilight switiches the music off and gathers the youngsters around a projector. With an unflappable, casual West Coast manner he walks the youngsters through the logic governing their situations.

A slideshow on the 'Block', for example, links the postcode-proud mentality, educational underacheivement and crime to the end point of a prison block.

Judging by the cackles of appreciation, it's a skit that has something of a revelatory effect on the youngsters, putting simply everyday things they feel and experience.

"Are you restricted? Did anybody tell you not to leave West London? If you want to be free, you can be free," he says to the 25-strong group.

He is met by a silence which among these boistrous kids suggests they have taken the point.

The 'Great Debate: Education v's Road?" presentation elicits similar mumours of agreement, and stimulates an open forum debate.

"I'm working to break the ghettos of the mind," he explains. "The problem lies in the head, not in the physical reality. Yes these young people have difficult surroundings, and sometimes their family lives are really hard but it's important they take responsibility for themselves and fight for a better life."

He is well-placed to know.

Having seen a number of friends die in gang-related attacks he looked for a way out of the ghetto. Fatherhood at the age of 18 helped focus his ambition and he funnelled his efforts into High School and then college.

"It's an accelerated process of maturity you go through in those circumstances, but the problem is you often don't have the technical skills to make changes - that's what these guys are going through," he says gesturing to Luke, Reis and Stacy.

With Twilight's help, they hope to complete mentoring courses and set an example for some of the area's 'youngers' .

"The only person the small kids know with a nice car is probably a drug dealer," Luke explains. "Since he came down here Twilight has given us knowledge that we take away and debate about among ourselves. We neverhad this beofre and now we want to be role models too."

"It takes a bit of faith," says Stacy, explaining how he turned around a reputation as a trouble teenager at a south London mentoring scheme before joining Twlight's sessions. "Every time I came in they would play a tune for me by Nas goes:'I know I can.. Be what I wannna be'. It meant a lot to me. Now I just want to do something positive around here."

Community members with a particluar life experience or career, irrespective of age and background can volunteer with Pathways2Progress. The aim is to build better relationships between local young people and adults, and provide kids without role models and careers advice.Interested? Then call Twilight on 020 8 962 6195 or email twilight.bey@chg.org.uk