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Jim Donnelly is a former republican prisoner who was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

He is now director of programmes for Active Communities Network, which is dedicated to youth development through sport.

Here is his take on the issues facing the communities he works in, in Belfast.

The big thing is drugs, there has been a big influx of drugs into the community, and when I was a teenager, that didn't exist.

There obviously would have been people taking drugs, but it would have been a very small percentage.

Then there were the security issues.

You would have been faced with the British army, who were heavily armed on the streets, they would have been stopping you where you were going, and that doesn't exist now.

But the social issues we are dealing with today are very similar.

There is educational underachievement, lack of employment and deprivation.

Things are much better, but a lot of that is quite similar.

Today it's the drugs being taken, both prescribed and illegal.

Then you have the mental health issues that are as a consequence of the conflict - a legacy of the conflict.

It makes things a lot more difficult for young people in today's world.

There's a thing called trans generational trauma, which is very prevalent in Belfast today.

Belfast was a war zone, parts of Belfast more so than others, and the parts that would have been more affected would have been the socially deprived areas.

Where I grew up in Ballymurphy, there were two instances where people were killed by the British army including Catholic priests, women and children.

That is something that has an impact right across the community.

Seeing bombs going off on a daily basis impacts on people.

Back then, there was no counselling, no way of dealing with this, no mental health professionals as they're called today.

That didn't exist during the conflict.

So some people grew up and tried to deal with things in their own way and that impacts on future generations.

If you witness something as a young mother or father walking down the street, it has an impact on you, you go home and you take that home with you.

Some people are prescribed drugs by their doctors to deal with it, and if you're taking those drugs and drinking as a way of coping, that has a lasting effect on your family.

In my opinion, the younger people that I work with across Belfast are not sectarian, they are younger than the Good Friday Agreement.

Social media has broken down a lot of walls in young minds, so they interact online on a daily basis.

But they don't physically interact that often because there are two separate communities, and we still have gates closing at the peace line.

They are locked at the end of the night, and for the life of me, I don't understand why.

There is no conflict or tension, but people find that they still need to be closed, so we are closing the walls in our minds and we're not prepared to open them, to interact with each other.