Ciaran Thapar (There’s no quick fix for knife crime, but there is a solution, 27 September) is spot on about there being no quick fix for young people’s issues. Youth and community workers work in a preventative way, heading off serious issues including mental distress, racism, relationship abuse and extremism. Our well-funded (now demolished) statutory youth and community service proudly offered an informal, preventative curriculum and provided safe spaces where skilled workers built trusting relationships with children, young people and adults. Since the demolition, so many well-trained youth workers now labour over funding bids rather than doing this crucial work. We hear some great youth centres have been sold off for £1. Of course, resurrecting the statutory youth and community service and reaping the results will take time – that’s probably why it’s absent from party manifestos.
Annette Rimmer
Manchester
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