Today (Saturday, April 10th) Hope for Justice is celebrating the third birthday of our business-focused Slave-Free Alliance division, which now has close to 100 members, with eight of those being part of the FTSE 100 index.

Hope for Justice created the social enterprise in the UK, to enable us to work in partnership with businesses to ensure their supply chains and operations were free of modern slavery, and to protect them against future infiltration by human traffickers.

Since the early days in 2018, Slave-Free Alliance has gone from strength to strength and become a global force for change. It now counts global multinationals and household names including Aviva, AstraZeneca, Morrisons, Yodel, Hermes, Dixons Carphone, Experian and ALDI UK as members.

Our Slave-Free Alliance team has expertise in organised crime prevention, including staff with backgrounds in high-level policing, social work, law and supply chain management. We offer a range of services including business review and investigation, crisis response, advocacy and remediation, and training and e-learning. We work closely with members to ensure a bespoke service, targeted specifically at the needs of each individual member.

And all profits from membership fees and services are re-invested into Hope for Justice’s vital work, to prevent exploitation, rescue victims, restore lives and reform society.

The story so far

Over the last three years, we have achieved a great deal by working collaboratively with our members. In November 2018, we held our first national seminar, and the spring of 2019 saw our first pharmaceutical member, AstraZeneca, join us. Our first higher education member, University of Manchester, soon followed suit.

In September 2019, we worked collaboratively with MRW to highlight the risk of modern slavery in the supply chains and operations of the waste and recycling industry, as part of the Root it Out campaign.

To continue to support our members during the global pandemic, in April 2020 we launched an e-learning service, to enable businesses to keep their knowledge up to date and continue their anti-slavery initiatives. We also began running monthly seminars online. And in June 2020, Slave-Free Alliance member, Morrisons, provided Hope for Justice with a grant £25,000 to provide food deliveries to survivors of modern slavery during the pandemic.

Another member, Biffa, marked 2020’s Anti-Slavery Day with the Zero Tolerance campaign, carried out in partnership with Hope for Justice. Biffa waste collection trucks were rebranded with the Zero Tolerance slogan to spread the word about modern slavery, and encourage people to find out more. The Zero Tolerance campaign was welcomed by former Prime Minister Theresa May, who encouraged businesses to review their supply chains to help prevent modern slavery.

Transforming supply chains and operations by working together

Susan Banister, Accounts Director at Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance, said: “We are delighted to celebrate the third birthday of Slave Free-Alliance. We are very proud of what we have achieved so far by working in partnership with our members, and would like to thank all our members for their fantastic efforts and commitment.

“As we look to the future we would urge businesses of any size, from any sector and based anywhere in the world, to join our life-changing movement. Together, we can achieve our ultimate shared goal of global slave-free supply chains and operations.”

Aldi UK’s Corporate Responsibility Director, Liz Fox, said of their membership: “Slave-Free Alliance have experience in identifying and rescuing victims of slavery, which, alongside their work in strengthening the modern slavery prevention practices of businesses, allows them to provide expert and bespoke training.

“The module package developed for Aldi was delivered to the agreed schedule and the result was a bespoke course, which is user friendly and uses a range of graphics to guide the user through the training and hold their attention throughout. We would thoroughly recommend the e-learning service through Slave-Free Alliance for anyone looking to raise awareness of modern slavery and promote effective reporting of modern slavery cases within their business and supply chains.”

Join the movement

Slave-Free Alliance members represent industries including professional services, engineering, data analysis, IT, utilities, energy, environmental services, manufacturing, agriculture, insurance, legal, pharmaceutical, property, recruitment, retail, transport and waste management.

Businesses wishing to find out more about membership of Slave-Free Alliance can email info@slavefreealliance.org or visit www.slavefreealliance.org

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