My Story, My Dignity workshop resource pack

During this workshop you will develop:

• In-depth knowledge of the ESRC research findings on visual representation in modern slavery and the practical steps taken in developing the ethical principles for the ‘Unhidden in plain sight’ photography project.
• An understanding of the four main principles of the My Story, My Dignity pledge and the opportunity to reflect on our content guidelines, approved by survivor-led organization Survivor Alliance.
• Reflect on how these principles can be practically implemented into your organisation’s work and receive support to produce bespoke guidelines

Start – 12:00

Introductions & warm-up activity

Find ethical images to represent modern slavery

Guidelines for choosing ethical images

‘Faith responses to modern slavery’ research and ‘Unhidden in plain sight’ project

My Story, My Dignity campaign, pledge and media guidelines

BREAK – 12:55-13:05

What language would you use?

Implementing the pledge

How will you use your learning?

Next steps & questions

Close – 14:00

Freedom United

Freedom United is the world’s largest community dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern slavery. We mobilise a united community to create power for change by making the public stakeholders in ending modern slavery. Freedom United developed the My Story, My Dignity campaign, pledge and content guidelines in collaboration with survivors and survivor-led organisation, Survivor Alliance, to disrupt unhelpful narratives around modern slavery in the media and anti-modern slavery sector.

Joanna Ewart-James, Executive Director, and Miriam Karmali, Senior Advocacy Officer, will be co-leading the workshops in partnership with Dr Hannah Lewis and Dr Rebecca Murray from the University of Sheffield.

‘Faith responses to modern slavery’ – ESRC research project

‘Understanding the roles of faith-based organisations in anti-modern slavery’ is a three-year research project at the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds funded by the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council). The project seeks to understand how faith shapes responses to anti-modern slavery and experiences of support of people who have exited severe exploitation. The research involved a multi-method approach to investigate anti-modern slavery practices and activities undertaken by faith-based and secular organisations, and statutory and civil society figures, primarily in England. The research also included a comparative element with key informant interviews in Spain and the Netherlands.

Dr Hannah Lewis and Dr Rebecca from the University of Sheffield will be co-leading the workshops in partnership with Freedom United.

‘Unhidden in plain sight’ photography project

‘Unhidden in plain sight’ is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, photographer Jeremy Abrahams and Snowdrop, Ashiana and City Hearts. The aim was to create a set of respectful and realistic images to convey the complexity of journeys into and out of modern slavery that can be used by anti-modern slavery organisations.

Please review this brief guide that explains how we will use Blackboard Collaborate and Miro during the workshop.

Blackboard Collaborate

We will use this to video chat during the workshop. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the Chatbox on Blackboard Collaborate or click on the ‘raise your hand’ icon.

• Mute – your microphone will be muted in Blackboard Collaborate once you are in the room. To talk, press the microphone icon at the bottom of your screen.
• Video – you can turn your video on and off by clicking on the camera icon on the bottom of your screen. If you are experiencing a slow connection, you may want to turn your camera off.
• Chatbox – in Blackboard Collaborate, click on the purple arrow on the bottom right of your screen and click on the speech bubble icon to see the chat window. You will be able to select an option to send a message to the whole group or only to the workshop moderators.
• Raise your hand – click on the icon of the person raising their hand at the bottom of your screen to raise your hand so that we know you are waiting to ask a question.

Miro 

This is the online workshop platform where you will be able to view slides and take part in interactive activities. All your input on Miro will be anonymous.

• Post-It notes – in the panel on the left-hand side of your screen in Miro, click on the top square ‘sticky note’ to add an additional Post-It note. Click in the note to add text.
• Videos – there are a couple of videos in the workshop presentation. You will be asked to mute yourself on Blackboard and click play on the video to watch it.

How to begin the workshop

You will receive a Blackboard Collaborate link via email on the day of the workshop. Please click the link and it will take you to a video conferencing room.

In the Collaborate Chatbox, a link to Miro will be shared. When you click on the link, it’ll open a new window in your browser. This is where the presentation and interactive activities will take place.

Please do not move between slides in Miro – you just need to watch the screen as the workshop hosts take you from slide to slide.

When indicated by the workshop hosts, you will be able to interact on the Miro board by typing in virtual Post-It notes.

There are a couple of videos in the Miro presentation. When indicated by workshop leaders, you will be muted on the video conferencing platform. Press play when invited to watch the video.

How to ask a question and get help

You can ask a question by dropping it into the Blackboard Collaborate chatbox where a workshop leader will reply.

Activity:  Read this news story and find an image that you think ethically represents the modern slavery issue being discussed. 

Please click the link to read the full story from The Guardian, a snippet is provided below: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/16/british-woman-repeatedly-trafficked-for-sex-after-home-office-failures

British woman repeatedly trafficked for sex after Home Office failures

A young and highly vulnerable British sex trafficking victim was re-trafficked by county lines drug gangs on multiple occasions after the Home Office repeatedly refused to fulfil its legal obligation to provide her with safe accommodation.

A high court judge was forced to intervene to compel the Home Office to house the woman, who was about to become street homeless.

The 22-year-old has a history of sexual and drug abuse and exploitation and grew up in the care system; she was allegedly sexually abused while in foster care. She has complex physical and mental health issues and has attempted suicide on multiple occasions.

As a teenager she fell under the control of county lines gangs who advertised her for sex on escort websites and used her as a drugs mule. She was also forced to commit petty crimes and her social media account was used to advertise sexual services.

Section 5 will consider the My Story, My Dignity content guidelines and media guidance. 

• Click here to view the pledge.
• Click here to view the content guidelines.
• Click here to view the media guidance.

Learning: Identify specific opportunities to implement practical steps your organisation  can take to ethically represent modern slavery issues.

You will be shown the images from Jeremy Abraham’s ‘Unhidden in Plain Sight’ collection that seek to convey complex journeys into and out of modern slavery respectfully.

Activity: Discuss in small groups what the images mean to you? Place the images in an order which you think creates a storyline.  Identify someone to take notes to feedback to the main group.

In preparation, you can view the images from the exhibition here: https://www.jeremyabrahams.co.uk/unhidden

Activity: Feedback to the main group about why you chose to place the images in the order you chose in. Do you think these images are ‘ethical’? Why?

Activity: Read this news story and highlight any language that you would change. 

Please click the link to read the full story from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a snippet is provided below: https://news.trust.org/item/20200713112335-sg139

UK has 100,000 modern slaves but most go undetected, study says

LONDON, July 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Britain is home to at least 100,000 modern slaves according to a new study, 10 times more than the official estimate, as activists warned 90% of victims may be going undetected.

Anti-slavery charity Justice and Care and think tank The Centre for Social Justice said the real number could be even higher, and warned that the coronavirus pandemic was likely to push more people into forced labour at car washes and brothels.

The study comes in the wake of media and campaigner reports that online fashion firm Boohoo’s suppliers underpaid garment workers in Leicester, central England, and failed to protect them from COVID-19. Boohoo last week said it was investigating.

Justice and Care said political leadership to tackle modern slavery had waned in recent years, and that a landmark 2015 anti-slavery law may have created a “false sense of security”.

Below you can find further resources and reading material to help inform our discussion during the workshop – not compulsory!

• ‘Black suffering for/from anti-trafficking advocacy’, Lyndsey P. Beutin
• ‘My experience is mine to tell: Challenging the abolitionist victimhood framework’, Claudia Cojocaru
• ‘Am I still not a man and a brother? Protest memory in contemporary anti-slavery visual culture’, Zoe Trodd 

Miriam Karmali, Freedom United

Miriam is the Senior Advocacy Officer at Freedom United. Freedom United is the world’s largest community dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern slavery. Through educating and mobilizing a united community, Freedom United creates power for change by making the public stakeholders in ending modern slavery. Freedom United equips millions of supporters with awareness, education & ways to take action on campaigns impacting modern slavery situations around the world. Working with over 90 global partners, Freedom United channels the collective influence of millions of supporters to demand an end to exploitation. Freedom United’s community influences businesses, governments & society to change the conditions which allow slavery to thrive.

Joanna Ewart-James, Freedom United

Joanna is the Executive Director at Freedom United. Freedom United is the world’s largest community dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern slavery. Through educating and mobilizing a united community, Freedom United creates power for change by making the public stakeholders in ending modern slavery. Freedom United equips millions of supporters with awareness, education & ways to take action on campaigns impacting modern slavery situations around the world. Working with over 90 global partners, Freedom United channels the collective influence of millions of supporters to demand an end to exploitation. Freedom United’s community influences businesses, governments & society to change the conditions which allow slavery to thrive.

Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield

Hannah is Senior Research Fellow in Sociological Studies whose work in migration and refugee studies has considered how the social and legal status of migrants can create freedoms and unfreedoms that may increase susceptibility to poverty, exclusion and forced labour; experiences of precarity; and the responses of civil society organisations. Her work has been published in a range of peer-reviewed journals, in third sector and statutory research publications, and in books: The modern slavery agenda: politics, policy and practice, Policy Press, 2019 (with G. Craig , A. Balch and L.Waite); Vulnerability, exploitation and migrants: insecure work in a globalised economy (with L.Waite, G. Craig & K. Skrivankova, Palgrave, 2015), Precarious lives: forced labour, exploitation and asylum (with L.Waite, S. Hodkinson & P. Dwyer, Policy Press, 2014).

Rebecca Murray, University of Sheffield

Rebecca is a Research Associate in the University of Sheffield Department of Sociological Studies. Rebecca’s academic research and practice across the statutory and non-statutory sector focuses on the marginalisation and precarity encountered by forced migrants. Rebecca completed her ESRC-funded PhD in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield in January 2017. Rebecca’s doctoral thesis entitled ‘Navigating the Higher Education Border: Routes to Belonging for Forced Migrant Students in the UK & Sweden’, is a comparative study exploring the role of universities in creating ‘routes to belonging’ for forced migrant students in the UK and Sweden. Rebecca continues her work in the field of forced migration and higher education through her position as an honorary Research Associate at the University of Exeter. In 2016, Rebecca was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Winchester, and in 2019 an honorary doctorate from Keele University.

Jeremy Abrahams, photographer

I am a portrait photographer focusing on positive representations of migrants and other immigration-related issues. I have previously been an economist, a teacher and an education consultant for local government. I trained as a photographer at Sheffield College. ‘Arrivals: Making Sheffield Home’ was exhibited at Weston Park Museum, Sheffield from September 2016 to February 2017 and was seen by 43,000 people. ‘Remain / Leave’ was exhibited in Sheffield Train Station in November 2017. ‘Unhidden in Plain Sight’ was exhibited in September 2018 as part of the Festival of the Mind and ‘Arrivals: Making Tyneside Home’ , funded by Arts Council England, was at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle from June 2019 November 2019. ‘Asylum Detention’ will be exhibited in Leeds in 2020. As well as self-initiated projects, I work closely with academics, finding creative ways to illustrate their research findings and make them more accessible to the general public. Please contact me if you have an idea to discuss. [email protected] / www.jeremyabrahams.co.uk