Riots to Resilience: Five ways to turn lessons into action

Voluntary and community sector offers ‘Five ways to build resilience’ in report aimed at turning lessons from last summer’s racist riots into action to protect communities in future.

The Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership and research and innovation organisation Neighbourly Lab release a new report highlighting five ways communities can bolster their resilience against riots, should they happen in future.

The report, Riots to Resilience: Five ways to turn lessons into action, shares stories and experiences from the racist and Islamophobic riots of August 2024, showing what worked and what was missing, and developing that learning into five ways communities can be more resilient in future.

The report is commissioned by the Emergencies Partnership and created by Neighbourly Lab. It documents the experiences of 80 local, national, and statutory organisations affected by last summer’s riots, including the positive steps communities took to cope and recover. The riots erupted in the days and weeks following the shocking murders of three young girls, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a dance event in Southport.

The riots that followed are widely thought to have been triggered by mis and disinformation about the attacker which spread online, incorrectly naming him and incorrectly claiming he was a person seeking asylum, and a Muslim.

In the report, a series of anonymised testimonies paint a picture of what life was like for those being targeted by the riots, through the eyes of people volunteering and working for voluntary and community groups, local authorities and others.

Find the report here