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The Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP) and Neighbourly Lab have released 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.
“We heard that good information flow between organisations of different size, sector and scale was vital. Where it wasn’t in place, communication felt confused and chaotic, and mis and disinformation did more damage.
“We heard about the importance of visible and vocal leadership and of members of the public showing solidarity. And we heard that sadly, in some areas, people have experienced an increase in racism, Islamophobia and harassment since the riots happened, causing them to withdraw from local services or make changes to their day-to-day lives, like travelling in pairs, to feel safer.
“Learning from the range of experiences across England has meant we can share strategies to help build resilience in the future.”
Marnie Freeman, co-founder and director of Neighbourly Lab.
Neighbourly Lab found only one third of the 80 partners spoken to think their communities are prepared for something similar in future, which is why they worked with them to develop five recommended ways to increase whole of society resilience.
They are:
- Know your communities: Map, build and maintain relationships with community groups through outreach and regular updates.
- Know your leaders: Ensure community groups know who is leading different parts of a response and develop a network where formal resilience leaders and community leaders collaborate.
- Know your places: Make a map of safe spaces for residents who face more risk, allies and volunteers to meet. Include them in emergency plans.
- Know your sources of information: Connect smaller community groups to wider community networks and clearly state who to follow for trusted information sources, including responsible local media outlets.
- Know your history: Harness lived experiences of prior riots and document it to shape community preparedness and emergency plans, as well as use it for outreach to young people, to help deter them from rioting in the future.
Robyn Knox, director of the Emergencies Partnership, says: “We’re grateful to Neighbourly Lab for this careful piece of insightful storytelling, and to our partners who took part in sharing their experience and highlighting what it takes for communities to rise up stronger against violence like this should it happen again. Each of us has a role to play now, and we can’t sit idly by hoping someone else takes action.”
VCSEP’s Robyn Knox recently participated in an Emergency Services Times webinar on how to break the cycle of failing to learn from incidents, which you can watch on-demand here.
