Youth workers in Belfast have called for greater focus on helping young people, rather than demonising them for incidents over the summer.
Those who work on the front line with young people at risk of being drawn into sectarianism and criminality say greater funding, understanding and patience is needed.
Stephen Hughes works at St Peter's Immaculata Youth Centre in Divis, where they've worked for two years to do away with August bonfires.
Read more: Youth worker calls for more funding for Belfast's young people
The building is due to be torn down next year and rebuilt so that it better serves its purpose, but despite budget cuts and wear and tear, those at its heart remain more committed than ever to fostering good relations.
Stephen says the greatest answer to solving problems between communities that have seen tensions rise in recent months lies in something very simple.
"The main thing for us is for the kids to make a friend - all the history stuff is good and important, but making a friend from a different community is more important than any of that," he told Belfast Live.
"I know people who have thanked me for doing this sort of work because years down the line, they've got friends on the other side of that peace wall and that's what we need."
Sitting in on an evaluation after the young teenagers have finished up a three-times a week work programme helping to clean up alleyways, gardens and community spots over the summer, Belfast Live is given an insight into how the group works.
There is room for the young people to challenge Stephen as he asks how they feel about the move away from bonfires to community work, with Stephen saying it's important everyone has a voice and room to use it.
He said he saw what had happened with outrage over recent pro-IRA songs being sung at the Feile festival in West Belfast and that it was something their cross-community youth work tries to address.
"We had a group of 8-11 year olds there the other day and they were singing each other's songs - it worked out quite well as it became a talking point for us, as an educational thing to get them to understand what it means and how it affects other people," he said.
Stephen says he worries about how tensions have risen between communities that had made great strides in recent years.
He has the air and experience of someone who has seen bad days become better days and is determined to try and keep that progress going.
"I think we were together and I think there's still parts together there but we need proper leadership, a bit of tact, sensitivity and care for each other," he added.
"At the minute though, we're not seeing that, it's just all attack, attack, attack.
"We are one community but divided and I think people are playing on that and I don't think our politicians are providing us with any leadership.
"That chasm is driving our communities apart.
"People aren't trusting each other, they're fearing each other and feeling threatened by each other and I think that's quite sad."
About a mile away, youth workers Pierce McConnell and Donovan Evitt are trying to address that attitude of 'them and us'.
When you walk or drive that mile though, you see the peace wall that still serves as a physical reminder of the wedge that exists between the Shankill-based group and the Divis one.
It's these barriers, physical and mental, that youth workers are trying to address.
"One of the things that we're constantly promoting is acceptance - a lot of times within our communities, I think we say it's about tolerance, about just putting up with something," says Pierce.
"But we're trying to stress acceptance - if you want to wear a Celtic or Rangers top or whatever, fire away, because that's the background you grew up in, that's who that person is and it's about accepting and respecting that that's someone's culture and identity.
"If it's the Feile or the Twelfth, it's about accepting that those are things that some people celebrate.
"It becomes less about where you're from and more about who you are."
Talking to Belfast Live, Pierce and Donovan are organising items that have been donated ahead of an international trip to South Africa for young people at the R City youth group, who have been through a longer programme of work.
"It's OK targeting the young people, but sometimes the programme on its own isn't enough," Donovan tells Belfast Live.
"We did approach young people that had got caught up in sectarianism and trouble at Hillview.
"And when you present them with the opportunity to go to South Africa, yes it's together, but it suddenly becomes 'I don't mind going with the Protestants or Catholics!'.
"Those problems, those religious issues then don't matter."
Donovan said it showed the value in investing in long-term youth work which allows young people space and time to come to terms with what can be complex issues in their lives.
"We've been working with the boys since the start of June and you're beginning to see the friendships form and six months ago, they were pelting bricks at each other.
"And that's because we've had the funding to get them into a programme with us to provide them with better opportunities to show them what making better choices can do."
Pierce McConnell has seen the value that broadening the horizons of young people with travel and cross-community work can have first hand.
Ironically, his first trip away from Belfast was as a teenager on an international programme overseen by none other than his Divis counterpart, Stephen Hughes.
"It was a trip to America at 15 - we got to see New York, Pittsburgh, Washington and West Virginia," he said.
"The big thing it gave me was aspirations - I wanted to travel more and it made me think about what I needed to do to get to that, it got me knuckling down at school and that."
He backs up that call for longer term funding arrangements, so youth workers can really plan programmes properly rather than making do with whatever comes to hand.
"We come from working class communities, financially struggling communities," he added.
"Young people can be a product of their environment, if you're constantly surrounded by negative things and issues, then sometimes it's easier to get sucked into that and be a part of that.
"Some don't get the opportunity to leave these communities - some of the young guys going this year have never been on a plane before and now they'll be going on a 20-hour plane journey."
Pierce adds that they work with the teenagers on a programme called My Choice, which makes them aware of how their choices can affect where they end up in life.
"We always ask them in those sessions about who wants a nice house, a good job, being able to go on holiday and having good money come in and they all say they do," he said.
"But they're in a position where it seems hard to achieve that.
"Within working class communities, it seems to them like there's two options to achieve that - you can work hard, get your education, get a good job and get a good income so you can afford it.
"But the other one is that they can look around and see the negative role models in the community who don't work, but have the best houses, cars, shoes and holidays because they might be involved in selling drugs or other illegal activities.
"It's about trying to obviously encourage young people to make good decisions and to put in the hard work to get what they want and what they deserve."
But youth workers and youth work are not immune to reality - the cost of living crisis looms and with it there are fears that good work could be undone as hard times hit.
"What we are seeing as well which is scaring the life out of me at the minute is the poverty," says Stephen Hughes.
"We're seeing kids turning up that haven't been eating and we're spending £10,000 a year now on food.
"The levels of poverty - I've never seen it before and it worries me.
"That poverty leads to crime, it leads to drugs and it leads to robberies.
"I'm really worried about the next two or three years, it's scary times - that's where you get the extremists coming in and not even just paramilitaries, but criminal gangs, who'll use young people who are desperate."
In the absence of political leadership and consensus, it will again fall on youth workers to step into that space and try and triage problems as best they can, acting as the brackets that hold the shelf of community up.
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