Harpurhey Neighbourhood Project

Harpurhey Neighbourhood Project was established in 1977 by local residents to support the community and people of Harpurhey.  They lived through the many decades of hardship that has been perpetuated within the community and, with the support of Manchester City Council, sought to make substantial and meaningful change.  The Project is a community-led group that aims to encourage and support the community and people of Harpurhey in improving the community, the local environment, and their own personal lives.Harpurhey Neighbourhood Project is based at the Harpurhey Neighbourhood Centre in Manchester, about three miles northeast of Manchester’s thriving and bustling city centre.  As a city, Manchester is full of contrasts and divergences – North and South, Red and Blue, and the powerhouses behind industrial, social, and technological revolutions, to name a few.  Nowhere is this seen more than in areas of affluence and areas of deprivation.  40.8% of Manchester’s Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are in the most deprived 10% of LSOAs nationally, and Manchester has ranked top in the proportion of LSOAs that are in the most deprived 10% in Health Deprivation and Disability.Culturally, it is regarded as a creative melting pot, giving birth to decades worth of artistic bodies of work that are known and celebrated worldwide.  From Oasis to Sweet Female Attitude, from LS Lowry to James Chadderton, from Happy Mondays to the BBC Philharmonic, from Coronation Street to Red Dwarf to Queer as Folk, the diversity of culture is in the lifeblood of Manchester, with different styles and attitudes coexisting and fusing to bring forth new experiences and powerful voices.  Harpurhey itself was the birthplace of Anthony Burgess, writer of dystopian satirical novel “A Clockwork Orange”.  Nowhere is this more evident than within the community itself, with people coming together despite their differences to help those most in need. Community groups work beyond “helping their own” and combine to form partnerships and collaborations that have proven incredibly successful.