Youth-led and youth-fed

"I can't understand what possessed the British to take Ireland in the first place. `The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.' I had to laugh when I heard this comment made by Samuel Johnson - it's so very true. You never know, this may be the cause of the troubles . . . "As a youth worker, it is important that projects such as Let's Talk are youth-made, youth-led and youth-fed. This is very important. The youth of today are more aware of their surroundings and they want to get involved. One quote I have always treasured is from Oscar Wilde: "The old believe everything, the middle aged suspect everything, the young know everything."

Stephen Conlon,

"I want young people to have their say and be heard; to participate in a process that assists listening, dialogue and collaboration. Honesty and openness will be the means of talking rather than barriers - through sharing experiences in these islands and internationally, we will diminish distance and difference."

Samuel Wolfendon, student, Randalstown, Co Antrim

"Young people are not the future - we all are. And we need to work with young people to ensure that they go further than we have been able to in removing prejudice and building just, peaceful and thoroughly democratic communities, with a confident sense of their own identity and an acute awareness of their interdependence with other communities around them."

Paul Smyth, youth worker, Belfast