A report has found that the violent disorder that swept parts of England and Northern Ireland in summer 2024 had a \u201cdevastating\u201d long-term impact on the mental and physical health of affected communities.<\/p>\n
The research, by the charity People\u2019s Health Trust, drew on the experiences of more than 50 community organisations working with tens of thousands of people in the neighbourhoods hit hardest by the racially motivated unrest.<\/p>\n
Almost two-thirds of those groups said they thought it was likely the people they work with would experience racist hate crime and violence in the near future.<\/p>\n
The violence broke out after the murder of three young girls in Southport, amid the spread of false information online that the perpetrator was an asylum seeker.<\/p>\n
The research found that racialised communities in particular reported hyper-vigilance, heightened anxiety, chronic stress and fear of using public spaces.<\/p>\n
Muslim girls and women have been particularly affected, experiencing increasing levels of Islamophobia, racism and misogyny. Many reported increased anxiety and isolation.<\/p>\n
John Hume, the chief executive of People\u2019s Health Trust, said: \u201cThis report lays bare the immediate and longer-term health impacts of racist violence. Last year\u2019s racist riots have left a deep scar, especially in communities already facing inequality, discrimination, and disinvestment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charity has urged the government to recognise and address the severe and lasting health impacts on those communities and to develop a specific strategy \u2013 with dedicated resources \u2013 to support those affected and help prevent future unrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to address the root causes of this violence which is both misinformation across the media and social media and the deepening dissatisfaction resulting from decades of austerity, poor housing and cost of living crises,\u201d Hume said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time for meaningful coordinated action from decision-makers at a national and local level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the grassroots organisations surveyed, 62% said those they support were \u201clikely\u201d or \u201cvery likely\u201d to experience racist hate crime or violence in the near future \u2013 with many describing the abuse as a daily occurrence.<\/p>\n
Incidents included an 18-year-old woman receiving racist abuse from adult men twice in one week.<\/p>\n
One community arts organisation in north-west England, which contributed to the report, said: \u201cThe incident and riots actually occurred in our participants\u2019 streets, and they claim this will definitely be a traumatic childhood experience for them \u2013 especially since some of the participants were related to the girls involved in the Southport incident, or had relatives who were friends with the families, attended their schools, or lived in their neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has led to a physical withdrawal among the young people, with a reluctance to practise the independence they should now be displaying and celebrating. They stated that their main peer social interactions during this time occurred within our project, and they did not feel safe interacting outside of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tamsin Hoare, the Kurt and Magda Stern Foundation chair, said: \u201cThese findings shed crucial light on the deep and lasting harms caused by last summer\u2019s violence, and on the conditions that led to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the recommendations, and clear and powerful calls to action, will inspire decisive change from leaders and institutions, so that all communities can feel a true sense of safety and belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A report has found that the violent disorder that swept parts of England and Northern Ireland in summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-286434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114905155020785608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}