Young people's voices should be valued when making decisions that directly impact them.

During the Youth Summit on Violence Reduction, we recorded quotes from break-out room discussions to capture their opinions on serious youth violence. 

"When people get arrested, or stopped because of something they are doing, they should be offered support, they should be assigned a youth worker to speak to. "

"We have conversations about gang violence but we refuse to talk about it in terms ofrace however this often plays a big part in hate crime and violence. "

"Stop treating young people as issues and problems to be solved"

"The root of the problem needs to be asked about and worked on – why are they carrying knifes? – and then build the support around them to tackle the issue."

"Some people don’t realise that there really is a better life."