OPINION: Stoke – a city with a heart
Visual representation of Stoke drawn by a resident
In recent months the CSC team have been working closely with Dana Jundi - as a Senior Associate - who lives in Stoke-on-Trent and this has included a combined research and community engagement exercise centred on how social cohesion can be improved. As part of her work on the ground with diverse communities Dana examined the underlying causes of dissatisfaction and unrest in the city. She is a firm believer in the urgency of more togetherness initiatives and shares her views.
The Summer of 2024 saw the largest wave of social unrest in the UK since 2011. Riots erupted across UK towns and cities, including Stoke-on-Trent. The immediate trigger was the truly horrific, tragic murder of three young girls in Stockport. The perpetrator was British-born to Rwandan parents, but far-right groups rapidly spread false claims online that he was a Muslim asylum seeker. This deliberate misinformation rapidly escalated into violent anti-immigration protests targeting mosques, hotels housing asylum seekers and minority communities. Sadly, the last few months have seen another rise in these sentiments.
In Stoke, there were attacks on the local Asian community and confrontations around mosques. Communities mobilised to defend these spaces, while counter-protesters and police attempted to contain the violence. The riots were fuelled by disinformation campaigns and amplified by far-right influencers and media narratives.
Underlying causes of disconnection
Photo credit: Dave Bevis
Underlying the violence were long-standing issues of poverty, poor housing, insecure work and the breakdown in trust between communities and institutions. Islamophobia, anti-migrant rhetoric and racialised hate had been simmering for months and exacerbated by politicians and inflammatory headlines.
The riots were a symptom. Not just of racial tension, but of a deeper disconnection. A city struggling with identity, cohesion and survival. Stoke is a city with heart, but there’s a quiet grief. Not just for the industries its lost - the potbanks, the pits, the steelworks - but for the sense of identity that went with them.
It was a city of makers, graft and grit, where pride came from what you produced and who you stood beside. Terraced houses line the streets and bottle kilns shape its skyline. But as those industries declined, so did the stability they offered, replaced with zero-hours contracts, poor work opportunities and underfunded services.
Today, people feel left behind. Not just economically, but emotionally. They see derelict buildings where factories once stood. They navigate poor transport networks across six disconnected towns. They hear promises of regeneration, but see “vanity projects” that don’t meet their needs. Just over half the city’s residents live in areas considered to be among the country's 20% most deprived (English Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2019), a stark reality that underpins this economic anxiety. And they’re told to be patient. To be cohesive. To just get along.
But cohesion doesn’t come from slogans. It comes from survival. And right now, too many people are struggling to get by.
In recent conversations across the city, residents spoke about the disconnect between their lived experience and the decisions made on their behalf. They spoke about consultations that feel performative, mental health services that are stretched thin, charities competing for scraps of funding when they should be properly supported, a media landscape that fuels division instead of understanding.
They spoke about a Stoke that feels unfamiliar, where cultural identity is tied to plates and potbanks that no longer resonate, and where the multicultural reality of today is ignored or politicised. They spoke about being blamed for problems they didn’t cause, and about watching their city change in ways that exclude them.
Enduring spirit and togetherness
And yet, despite all this, Stoke’s spirit endures.
Photo credit: user:geni
It lives in the community gardens, the food banks, the community arts projects, the churches and the grassroots organisations that show up when the systems fail. It lives in the warmth of neighbours who help each other through crisis, with their “ay-up ducks” and warm cuppas. It lives in the belief that things could be different, if only those in power were willing to listen.
That’s why civil society matters. Because when formal systems fail, it’s civil society that steps in. But it can’t do it alone. It needs partnership, not just a stopgap. If we want a cohesive Stoke-on-Trent, we need to invest in the people who already hold it together. We need to stop asking communities to do more with less, and start asking how we can do more for them. Our Steps to Togetherness movement is a key contribution which supports civil society organisations who are already working so hard to build solidarity and cohesion in these troubling times.
We need to build a future that honours our past, but doesn’t get stuck in it, where cultural identity reflects the diverse, creative and resilient Stoke of today, and where abandoned buildings become community assets, not symbols of decline. A future where every resident feels like they belong and feels heard.
What we need now more than anything is kindness, tolerance, togetherness. This is the Stoke we can build.
About Dana
Dana is an independent consultant specialising in participatory evaluation and inclusive community engagement, and is a Senior Associate at Civil Society Together and Consulting. She has worked with grassroots and infrastructure organisations led by and for marginalised communities in Stoke to help build skills and confidence in evidencing impact and securing funding. Her work centres on co-designed, accessible and sustainable evaluation approaches.
She brings expertise in developing creative tools that help communities articulate needs and assess impact in contexts where language, confidence and systemic barriers often prevent participation. Her participatory methods are grounded in equity and anti-oppression and have successfully engaged some of the most underrepresented groups who are very often excluded from this type of work. Dana used these methods to engage diverse communities in research piece in Stoke looking into the underlying causes of dissatisfaction and unrest in the city.
