About

RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research) is a Manchester-based human rights organisation working with people, both locally and further afield, who are at risk of having their rights denied.

We work with — and many of us are, or have been — displaced people facing challenges relating to citizenship, housing, deportation, employment, education, personal safety and other problems. We enable people’s access to the services they need, and release their abilities to find effective solutions to challenges facing them.

We also assist in the formation of community groups, and develop research projects and learning opportunities that advance the general body of knowledge about displaced people.

Founded in 2001 by a group of volunteers,  RAPAR is still run on an entirely voluntary basis by local and displaced people from all over Greater Manchester, who come together from many different backgrounds, cultures, histories, experiences and challenges.

RAPAR is a frontline organisation, responding to needs that are continually presented. We challenge and act on situations with people whose human rights are being threatened. We do this through our CASEWORK.

RAPAR works with people to help them to help themselves, to support them should they wish to work together rather than in isolation, to release their abilities to understand and find solutions to the situations they and others face, and to develop and empower themselves and others as individuals and as communities. We do this through our COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.

RAPAR develops and delivers cutting-edge participatory research and learning opportunites nationally and internationally, ensuring that our work takes place within a context of continual action learning, research and development. We do this through our RESEARCH.