Rise North East: Kit Out Sunderland Project Achieves Triple Win For Place, People And Planet

Rise North East (Rise) is a health and wellbeing charity dedicated to transforming lives through the power of movement. Recognising the link between climate change and sport, Rise has embedded sustainability into its mission. A key focus has been reducing textile waste while tackling social inequalities that prevent children and young people from accessing physical activity.

Challenge

In the North East, 35% of children live below the poverty line, and lack of appropriate clothing and footwear is a major barrier to participation in sport. During the Opening School Facilities project, Rise found that even when facilities were available, many young people could not attend due to these barriers. At the same time, the UK sends 350,000 tonnes of textiles to landfill annually, making this a dual challenge of social and environmental impact.

Solution: Kit Out Sunderland

Rise worked collaboratively with Sunderland City Council, NECA, StreetGames, Sported and YST to co-design and co-create Kit Out Sunderland, a sports kit donation and recycling scheme designed to:

• Remove barriers to physical activity for children and families.
• Reduce textile waste and promote circular economy practices.
• Strengthen local partnerships for sustainable impact.

The initiative involved:

• Placing 18 donation boxes (made from sustainable materials) in high-footfall locations including leisure centres, NHS sites, Nissan, and Sunderland AFC’s stadium.
• Collecting, sorting, and redistributing donated kit through local VCSE organisations.
• Recycling unsuitable items via textile banks.
• Engaging volunteers and students from the Foundation of Light for sorting and distribution.
• Delivering a communications campaign with messages such as “Every child has the right to play and be active” and “Reducing the environmental impact of discarded clothing”.

Impact

In just three weeks, 224kg of sports kit and footwear was collected and redistributed to 10 local organisations, supporting hundreds of children and families.

The project had the following outcomes:

• Social impact: Breaking down barriers to participation and reducing stigma.
• Environmental impact: Diverting textiles from landfill and promoting reuse.
• Community impact: Strengthening partnerships and creating a scalable model for future rollouts.

Media coverage amplified the message, and other local authorities have expressed interest in replicating the scheme.

Legacy

Plans to extend and expand the Kit Out project across the region are being developed. Rise North-East’s work continues to show that sport can drive positive change for people, their community and the planet.