A lot of talk about young people and children in recent days following disorder across Northern Ireland. As a qualified youth and community worker and as someone who has been working with young people in care system for 20 years, here is just a few things on my mind:

Bottom line is we need to reinvest in youth work. From centre based & outreach services to reaching young people online.

We can't keep cutting corners, then wonder why young people are getting sucked into disorder, when infrastructure has been dismantled over years of austerity

We need to invest in our working class communities, children particularly. There needs to be long term strategic thinking around this. Not just throw money at it for a couple of years, politicians get a headline/photo then forget about it quickly.

When I look at the opportunities I had as a working class kid in the 90s, with a decent youth service and network around it. It let me meet others from different backgrounds, travel to places I never imagined. It broadened my horizons and gave me a sense of hope and optimism.

I benefited directly from the peace process and GFA as a young person, with the investment and funding that flooded into youth work. Without it, I could have ended up in a paramilitary organisation, in prison or dead. Youth work and the likes of @NIYF literally saved my life.

This isn't going to be easy to undo the years of austerity and we may have lost many young people, but if we are serious then they need to be front and centre of policy decisions going forward. First thing we can do is listen to them and not think we know best.

We have left this to underfunded voluntary/community groups to do for years. The end product is thin on the ground & in some areas young people are ripe for the picking by paramilitaries.

Finally feel free to challenge this, add ideas/learning etc. Cheers.