Yesterday, the Youth Work Alliance brought their concerns to Stormont after the announcement in March that the ringfencing was to be removed from the youth services budget. Youth leaders and children from across the Six Counties highlighted the importance of youth services and their concern for the future of jobs and the wellbeing of those who rely on the services.
In a video released in recent days, young people highlighted how youth centres provide them with a sense of safety and community alongside their peers and how important they are as a space for them to meet and get off the streets. Youth leaders expressed concern about the future of the children that they help care for and demanded an increase in the pay levels of those working with them.
These cuts come at a time when MLA’s found the money to give themselves a 27% pay rise, taking their salary to over £67,000 a year. They come at the same time that one in three children live in poverty. For them, youth spaces may be their only get out from the never ending cycle of societal violence caused by capitalism.
The implementation of these cuts by Stormont is happening, ultimately, on behalf of the British government in London. The administration of British Rule in Ireland is putting us on the same road towards the destruction of youth spaces and community and the criminalisation of children that has already been seen in Britain.
Only in a Socialist Republic can we make sure that our youth are properly provided for without the Capitalist vultures clawing away at their every outlet in pursuit of profit.
