June 2023 Donor Update

As a valued donor, I would like to update you on all that has been happening so far this year. And we have some exciting news about our survivor groth and expansion plans for the rest of the year.

Team Update

Firstly, meet Faye (pictured). We are so excited to Faye Backhouse join our team this month. As COO she will be a big part of driving our plans for the next year forward. Here is a message from Faye….

“At university, I completed my dissertation on Modern Slavery in England between 2000-2010. When I first spoke to my dissertation supervisor, who was a specialist in pre-abolition slavery, about my chosen topic his response was “What do you mean ‘Modern Slavery’?” This response coupled with delving deeper into the topic sparked a desire in me to one day play a part in helping end Modern Slavery.

Throughout my career, I have been building skills in operations and business management, hospitality, training, and national expansion across multiple organisations including in the not-for-profit sector. When I saw the advertisement to work with The Freedom Hub I finally had the opportunity to utilise my skills to support the end of Modern Slavery.

I am delighted to be working with such a hardworking and passionate team who truly cares for the well-being and advancement of all of our survivors and is constantly striving to find ways to support them and others like them. I am excited to see what strides we can take together in the coming months and years to grow the amount of support we can offer Australia-wide and work towards the goal of ending Modern Slavery here in Australia.“

Survivor Update

Secondly, I would love to update you on our Survivor School and survivor growth. We now have over 120 survivors of modern slavery in our care. Most are in Sydney, 5 in Qld, and 3 in Victoria. Did you see the latest Global Savery Index figures?

41,000 people living in slavery in Australia in 2021.

We have a lot more work to do. As you will see in the Vision Update below we plan to expand by starting a Survivor School in Victoria and Western Australia, as well as increase our school in Queensland to help address this.

Three areas of Survivor Growth:

As mentioned, we have increased our numbers significantly. So with the help of supporters like you, we hope by the end of 2023 we will be able to have 200 survivors. Because we receive no government funding, we are forever grateful for any contribution you can make. You can help a survivor directly by clicking here. Currently, it averages out at around $5000 per survivor to go through our program. So every cent helps but if you are a business, $5,000 is a great number to aim for because you know you are rebuilding the life of a survivor in our country. Every amount large or small directly assists survivors. (Current costs: 120 x 5,000 = $600,000 / Goal: 200 x 5,000 = $1m)
2. We have increased our Employment Pathways program. What started as a few survivors being employed by loyal supporters has now grown into an established program with two pillars. The first pillar is the skills training required to help the survivor prepare to be confident and excel in the workplace. And the second pillar is the placement of the survivor with an employment partner and we mentor them through the placement until they are able to stand alone. We have had a number of foundations give us grants to support this program and we currently have 37 survivors in the first pillar training for employment. We recently held a Survivor Careers Day so they could learn about different pathways they could try and it was a huge success.
3. Survivor Voice. The third growth area for our survivors is for those who want to be a voice of ‘lived experience’ to help businesses and entities in their response to modern slavery. We currently have 6 survivors who are paid to provide comments on entities’ policies and processes in managing modern slavery. This helps the company in developing realistic goals and systems that work, and it helps the survivors be part of helping end slavery without being public. Read more about Survivor Voice here.

Vision Update

I really believe that The Freedom Hub is positioned at a time in Australia’s history to have a serious impact to end slavery in our country. We could be the first country in the world to have no slavery. If we collaborated more and had as many businesses and conscious consumers as possible taking a stand in where and how they shop, this could easlity be achieved.

The Freedom Hub model has been developed and honed over nearly 10 years (yes, the 10-year party is coming up!). We want this model to work in each state.

Here is The Freedom Hub Model

(in case you are new to our community of supporters)

The Freedom Hub State Team > provide awareness & advocacy in Local Area & Community > train and work with Local Businesses > Partner & train Local Services Providers and front-line workers. As local survivors are identified they join our Survivor School > Survivors are mentored by local Education Coaches > local business partners provide sponsorship and Employment Pathways > local business partners engage survivors in ‘lived experience advisory services’ > The Freedom Hub State team provides local businesses Employee Engagement in ending modern slavery with volunteer days and fundraising opportunities.

If you are able to support your local State with an EOFY donation it would be a great start to this vision for expansion.

Below are the links to a fundraiser we are running up until UN Anti Slavery Day on 30th July for each State. You will receive an automated tax receipt with your donation.

VICTORIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA. QUEENSLAND SYDNEY

SAVE the DATE

Finally, if you want to run an awareness raising event about slavery in Australia inline with UN Anti Trafficking Day, you might like to consider running a Fivers For Survivors Day in you workplace, school, uni, in your home or ina local cafe. Gather your people and we will sned you the latest stats, info on slavery, videos and flyers you can use to make your event fabulous. Sell tickets or ask for $5 donation (or $15 or $50 depending on what you are running. Click here to learn more about Fivers for Survivors

So once again, I am very grateful for your ongoing support in helping us support as many survivors as possible and raise awareness to end this crime in our country.

onwards and upwards

Sally xx

Sally Irwin – Founder