Freedom Collaborative

Freedom Collaborative is well into its ninth month now, and we're continuing to improve and expand the platform all the time. The Registry now has more than 920 counter-trafficking organizations listed and the library has more than 2000 resources uploaded. We also have almost 900 individual users registered from more than 130 countries.

The Registry is continuing to expand globally. Cambodia, Nepal and Canada have all formed steering committees to work on contextualizing the platform to fit the needs unique to their countries. Costa Rica and the United Kingdom are in the process of forming their steering committees as well. Along with the language aspect of the Registry, contextualization also includes choosing the best practices for counter-trafficking measures in that country. If you're interested in reading about the good practices in the United States, we wrote a short post detailing those out.

Most exciting since our last report is the announcement that Dialogues have launched! Freedom Dialogues consist of a short video discussion, each between two different experts, on a specified human trafficking topic. The video is uploaded to the platform and users can engage with the featured Specialists and each other through the comments section. We already have three different videos uploaded, sparking some great conversations. Our topics thus far are Connectivity, Men and Boys in Human Trafficking, and Healthcare. We invite you to go watch one (or all three!) and leave your comments or questions in the thread to engage in the dialogue.

Freedom Collaborative is always evolving. It's designed to be a living community of people, organizations, agencies and institutions involved in the anti-human trafficking movement, which means it will continue to grow with use. Remember when we mentioned that the map was going to be updated? Well those plans are finally in the works and being pushed to the development phase! We're excited to see this tool become the hub of the platform, bringing everything together in a cohesive movement to spur effective collaboration.

As a team, we have just completed our annual Strategic Planning where we prepare for the next year and line up our objectives for the future. We're excited for what's to come with our project and the counter-trafficking community as a whole. Our goal is to empower others and streamline actions into more effective results by giving grassroots movements as much influence and contribution opportunities as larger organizations, creating a centralized hub for counter-trafficking efforts and bringing more connectivity into the community.