How fitness and defiance helped Sunderland bounce back from the riots: 'They're not going to beat us'

When you come here, nobody judges you, nobody’s bothered what your background is,” says Colin Dagg, who runs Keep Active in Sunderland, which works with the community – children, people with addiction issues, and more – to improve fitness as a way of improving lives. 

Last summer, the riots that engulfed the country also caught alight in Sunderland. The first person in the UK charged with rioting was a 15-year-old from Sunderland. Hundreds of people unleashed on the city, burning cars and attacking police officers. A Citizens’ Advice office was set on fire. 

“All the schools we work with were panic stricken,” says Dagg. Parents were scared to go and pick up children from holiday activities, worried they’d get caught up in the disorder. 

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The immediate aftermath was one of shock – but also defiance. 

“They will not define our reputation,” the region’s mayor Kim McGuinness said. “They will not define our place in the world.” 

But, through the work he does in the community, Dagg saw a lingering impact. Covid had left a lot of people scared to go outside. “When the riots came,” Dagg says. “I think it just knocked them back once again.” 

Funding from Big Issue Invest (BII), the social investment arm of Big Issue, helped Keep Active take on another member of staff, saving them money from relying on freelancers. 

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The region’s leaders are banking on similar solutions to alleviate child poverty in the North East. Big Issue Invest has played a key part in the £1 million Flexible Social Finance Fund, announced by McGuinness in November 2024, which she said would help communities take control of their future by funding grassroots groups.

As Big Issue Invest said in the past: “We make loans and investments that create hope and change, across the UK.”

Dagg adds: “People have taken the bull by the horns and thought, ‘They’re not going to beat us.’” 

Yet there is an overall level of need which Dagg says contributes to “the toughest times in 15 years that I’ve been involved in”. His team found 84% of the children who take part in their activities have autism or ADHD, or are waiting for a diagnosis. 

“We are seeing a huge increase in the number of children we have to give that extra bit of support to in our holiday provision,” he says. 

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