About Us

We run services for asylum seekers and new refugees to get the help they need. We use early action to avoid crises. This includes empowering our members to take action for themselves, building skills and confidence.

We are anti-racist and will not accept discrimination due to race, religion, sexuality, gender, disability, age, ethnicity nor any other type of bullying or harassment.

We want a society where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are welcomed. A society where everyone’s rights and entitlements are respected.

We run safe, welcoming drop-in sessions with education opportunities and childcare, alongside advice and casework. A holistic set of services addressing many of the issues faced by asylum seekers: social isolation, disempowerment, homelessness and insecure accommodation, poor mental and physical health.

We work with partners to increase our impact, both in delivering services and contributing to local and national campaign work and policy advocacy on issue affecting asylum seekers and refugees.

History

BRR began life in 2006 as a voluntary organisation, and has since grown to become the largest refugee and asylum seeker charity in Bristol. BRR supports refugees, asylum seekers and those with insecure immigration status.

We provide holistic support to our members – by helping them with varied aspects of their lives, such as in-depth and high level advice surrounding the asylum system, entitlements and access to wider services. While we are not a law-based organisation, we do advocate on behalf of our members to the HO, council, NHS, lawyers and other organisations in order to make sure they are receiving the right amount of care, support and entitlements. We also directly provide things like English classes, family support, and material support in the form of money, bus tickets, and other such items in order to ease access to life in the UK. BRR is a service delivery organisation but we also work to achieve systemic change.

We fight for the rights and entitlements of people seeking asylum during this process – advocating on their behalf in order for them to get everything they are entitled to, and doing our very best to fill the gaps where they arise. While the current climate around those seeking refuge in the UK is hostile and deeply troubling, we will continue to support everyone who wishes to find safety here in Bristol, and fight for systemic change into the future.

We Are Anti-Racist

In July 2020, Bristol Refugee Rights published a short statement setting out our commitment to tackling institutional racism and to being inclusive to all.  Since then, we have continued to develop our understanding on these issues and to develop a plan of next steps.

We have explored the intersection between the issues of Race, immigration status and other equality issues and recognised that as an organisation working with asylum seekers and refugees, it is imperative that we build our understanding of the discrimination faced by our members and others in society due to each and all of these issues.  We have committed to building our understanding of racism and how to be anti-racist; but also to continuing to address the intersectionality between the multiple and complex issues those who use our services face.

A Working Group of Staff and Trustees have developed a programme of specific actions that will be taken over coming months as we continue on our journey.

1.      Training: All staff and trustees will attend a training on improving their understanding about Race and racism.

2.      Workshop: An externally facilitated workshop will be used to explore what actions we can take to tackle racism within and outside of our organisation.

3.      Networks: We will build new relationships and connections with Black led / anti-racist organisations.

4.      Communication: We commit to being positively anti-racist in our communication and will work to develop shared language and tools to do this.

5.      Service design: As part of the process for developing our new Strategic Plan, we will design services which are anti-racist, non-discriminatory and needs led.

6.      Staff and volunteers: We will continue to strive for services to be led and delivered by a diverse group of people, with lived experience at the centre.

7.      Action: We will continue to develop our action plan based around our three priorities: lived experience led, equalities and anti-racism; and this will include updating our User Participation Strategy and Equalities Policy both of which should be linked to the action plan.

July 2022 Update:

As part of our continued drive to be Anti-Racist, we recently updated our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policy which you can view here