Co-creating our Vision and Action Plan for Survivor Leadership in the the next decade

In July and August 2022, more than 170 survivor leaders from across 20 countries participated in Visioning Workshops. During those workshops, we aimed to offer a collaborative and brave space to collectively dream and envision how we want to see and experience survivor leadership in the anti-trafficking and anti-slavery sector for the next decade. We invited the participants to leverage their collective experience and expertise to bring to life the future that may yet be possible.

The collective vision from the workshops are currently being used as a guide to inspire and inform the development of an action plan to build an intersectional, inclusive movement that is truly by, of, and for survivors of slavery and trafficking.

Following the workshop, Survivor Alliance reviewed the recordings from the workshops and were able to collect and witness an abundance of positive feedback from those who were able to attend. Many of the responses were very thought provoking and authentically poetic. We just couldn’t let the feedback go unheard. As a result, the Movement Building Team decided to highlight this impactful work by creating a multi- language and multicultural video titled, “We Will”.

This video was inspired by the contribution made by one of the workshop participants, which felt like a statement and had a powerful impact on those in the meeting.

Please check out "We Will " video developed and recorded by some amazing survivor leaders across the globe!

Action Plan

Following the Visioning Workshops, 60 participants from 20 different countries were selected from an applicant pool of 245 to engage in a six month paid multi-language working group to collectively develop an Action Plan for Survivor Leadership in the next decade.The working groups are facilitated by 6 lived experienced experts who currently work in the anti-trafficking sector under many different roles and capacities from different parts of the world. 

The current anti-trafficking sector is currently highly professionalized and void of survivors making decisions and leading initiatives that directly impact them and other survivors alike. Survivor Alliance envisions a self-led, bottom- up movement in contrast to the current model. Our efforts to both develop survivors as leaders and shift the attitudes of allies, or non-survivors, in sector leadership roles will result in an intersectional, inclusive movement that is truly by, of, and for survivors of slavery and trafficking. 

The Working Groups began meeting in November 2022 and will convene until June 2023 once a month. There are currently 6 working groups that are divided by 5 thematic topics that include: 

Survivor led anti-trafficking/modern slavery global movement

Survivors in decision making positions (2 Groups)

Survivors Providing and Influencing Direct Services

Survivors leading Production of Knowledge

Survivors Led Organizations and Projects

As a collective, survivor leaders will identify outlined goals, actions, and demands for each thematic topic. Each working group will discuss current barriers and needs for capacity building to ensure survivors are empowered and equipped to lead the movement in confidence. The working groups will outline recommendations to present to allies, policy makers, and current NGOs. 

What’s Next: 

Since we weren’t able to include all applicants in the working groups due to limited funding, we will be hosting 3 paid feedback sessions that will allow those who weren’t selected to join the Working Groups to have the opportunity to contribute to the Action Plan. More details regarding the feedback sessions will be shared soon. 

We are excited to announce that we are in the planning stages of our upcoming in person World Congress that will take place in 2024! We will be sharing more details soon so please be on the lookout for more details here on our website and other social media platforms! We hope to see you there.