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Survivor Growth

by | Jun 23, 2023 | Ending Modern Slavery, Survivor News

pic of a survivor finger nails painted

Growth in quality of life and vision for the future is essential for every person who has escaped slavery. It might seem trivial to us to have fingernails manicured, but it is a luxury for a survivor of slavery with little or no income. In this case, the survivor said she felt valued, cared for, and had a sense of being ‘normal’ (her words) because isn’t this what most women do?

 

 

Numerical Growth

 

So far this year we have 124 survivors in our care, 47 are in our Employment Pathway training program, 31 are placed in employment and we have 18 employment partners.

Most of our survivors 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. So 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 the need.

The Freedom Hub Survivor School was established to empower survivors into a future of greatness and not live as victims. Our curriculum has been tweaked and designed by survivors to empower other survivors. Survivor leadership, survivor voice, & lived experience are all key to the work we do helping survivors to rebuild their life.

 

 

Three areas of Survivor Growth:

 

  1. As mentioned above 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. 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 47 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.

 

  2. 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.

 

 

 

pic of a survivor with a map of Australia

 

If you would like to contribute to having a Survivor School in your State click 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

 

 

Besides our Survivor School weekly curriculum, some of the fun and immersive experiences we have provided for survivors to be a part of this year include:

A trip to Vivid, a Careers Day, a clothes swap day, a picnic, a day to the beach, a manicure day, a mum’s group outing to a play center, a wellness and make-up workshop.

Our Sydney school has been based in Ultimo but as most of our survivors live in the west, we are running a crowd funder to find a location in Parramatta. This year all funds raised in our Fivers for Survivors campaign will go toward this new location. Click on “Sydney” above if you would like to help with this vision. We will have more engagement in classes if survivors don’t have to travel as far.

 

We are also needing more volunteers to help with our expansion in each state. If you would like to know more about that click here.