Background History

Manchester Council for Community Relations has been established since 1966. It was set up in partnership between the Home Office, Manchester City Council and the local ethnic minority communities. MCCR started life as the local community relations council, and the primary issue it addressed was immigration and the settlement of Black and Asian immigrants into Manchester. Over time, the issues of racism, racial discrimination were added to the portfolio of MCCR's core business. We are a charity in the voluntary sector, and we operate on non-party political and non-sectarian basis in fulfilling the requirements of the Race Relations Act with its amendments.

During its 42-year history, MCCR's work has ranged from community relations, setting up projects for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in assisting them to integrate into the mainstream of society, to promoting race equality and equal opportunities. Lately, MCCR has been participating strategically in emerging decision-making bodies, e.g. Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership, the Manchester Partnership, etc in ensuring that race equality specifically and diversity generally are addressed by the mainstream agencies during the regeneration of Manchester.

The work of MCCR essentially falls into the following parts:

• Enforcement, under the Race Relations Act 1976 as amended, by taking up cases of racial discrimination, mainly in employment, but also in service delivery.
• Promotion of race equality and equal opportunities in Manchester by working with large and small organisations in the public and private sectors.
• Combating racial harassment by working with various agencies.
• Working strategically in the economic and social regeneration of Manchester.
• Undertaking projects to address specific needs of ethnic minority communities, which are not being addressed by the mainstream service providers.
• Assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in their settlement and integration within the local communities, by focusing on racial harassment faced by them and ensuring action is taken by statutory agencies against the perpetrators.
• Participating as one of the Voluntary Sector Support Agencies of Manchester. Participating in networks locally, regionally, nationally and in Europe.