When the Community First Support Network in Middlesbrough closed its doors due to a lack of funding in January 2024, residents rallied to save the community centre on Collin Avenue in Saltersgill. They feared the building, which has been used by families ‘for generations’ — from parent and toddler groups to youth groups and OAP bingo — would stand empty or fall into disrepair.
A committee of local parents came together to try to save the centre from becoming derelict, and Thirteen Group, which owns the building, promised it would not close down altogether.
Now, more than two years on, there’s a buzz about the place again. Over the last few months, the building has been a hub of activity.
Tempus Community Projects (TCP) signed a 10-year lease with Thirteen earlier this year to set up the first of what it hopes will be several community hubs across Teesside, bringing professional role models, sports training, and safe spaces to children, young people and marginalised communities to help them ‘reach their potential’.
Over the summer, one of the project’s first initiatives was to offer 30 different sports in 30 days, giving young people the chance to take part in everything from athletics and boxing to paddleball and skateboarding.
Table rugby with a coin was also an early favourite, according to Teessider Chris Simpson-Daniel, the former pro rugby player behind the project, who says he wants to give young people the same opportunities that sport gave him.
Simpson-Daniel, a former Newcastle Falcons player and Premiership winner, grew up in Middlesbrough. He set up TCP to use his links to elite athletes and sports professionals — ambassadors include Gary Lineker and Alan Pardew — to connect them with disadvantaged communities.
“I’m a Boro boy originally,” he told The Teesside Lead.
“My brothers and I were raised in the area.”
Sport was an outlet for the Simpson-Daniel brothers including James, the former Gloucester Rugby and England winger/centre. But he remembers children who didn’t have the same opportunities due to their financial or domestic circumstances.
“I could have been unruly, but sport was my release,” he says.
“I saw some of the most talented kids who didn’t get the chance.”
According to the brochure, the community hubs will offer sports and activities led by top athletes, encouraging young people to engage with positive role models. Simpson-Daniel believes giving them somewhere to go and something they enjoy could help prevent crime and antisocial behaviour.
He adds: “You get their attention. You get them involved. You get them engaged.”
“My dark days are dark”
He is no stranger to personal struggles himself.
In 2022, at the age of 44, he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and has since spoken publicly about struggling with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
In August 2025, he was given a 10-month prison sentence suspended for two years for dangerous driving. Teesside Crown Court heard how Simpson-Daniel had had a “complete mental health breakdown” in October 2024, and drove into numerous vehicles after drinking alcohol and taking drugs. He was attempting to drive to the coast to kill himself. The judge spared him from jail because of the diagnosis of a degenerative brain disease “caused or contributed to” by head impacts in his career.
‘My dark days are dark,” he told Mail Sport, in 2025.
“I had a very, very bad one last year where I did make an attempt on my own life.”
After his diagnosis, he set up Tempus Group in 2023, which is developing dedicated communities providing housing, welfare and mental health support for ex-athletes and veterans, as an alternative to existing residential settings.
The first Tempus Village, near York, welcomed its first residents this summer, with interest in the model internationally.
“I’ve made mistakes in my life,” he told the Mail reporter.
“But at least I’m now working on projects that are hopefully going to make a difference and that I fully believe in.”
“I saw the anti-social behaviour”
After signing the lease on the building, Simpson-Daniel says he spent a week there and knocked on hundreds of doors to speak to residents in the area.
“I watched the anti-social behaviour, I watched the bullying,” he says.
