Workshops and Events

Slavery Free Croydon Creating Awareness of Modern Slavery

From the playground to our local business, Modern Slavery and Trafficking is happening on our doorstep and we are mostly blind to it. Thanks to our funders, CCAT now provides a range of free workshops to help you understand, identify, and prevent the exploitation of the people around us.

Our mission is to create a Slavery Free Croydon by highlighting and fighting exploitation in Croydon. We aim to inspire our local community to understand the injustices of Modern Day Slavery and create a certification that can be displayed in businesses, places of worship, schools, community groups etc to show that they have committed to making Croydon slavery free.

Slavery Free Croydon is a natural progression of CCATs work. Since 2014 CCAT has been following a three point strategy of intelligence gathering, awareness raising, and campaigning, CCAT successfully reduced the number of off-street brothels in operation; raised awareness of human trafficking in Croydon; and garnered support from local stakeholders (including the Metropolitan Police, Croydon Council, and MPs).

We have grown a lot since then, in 2021 we commissioned research to understand Modern Slavery in Croydon better. In 2022 we laid the foundations for establishing and growing the project, including our local community, and developing Slavery Free Croydon Community Champions to further the work.

2023 will see CCAT initiating Slavery Free Croydon through two main objectives 1) continuing our already strong Awareness Raising programme of workshops delivered to schools, colleges, universities, local businesses, and residents; and 2) setting up the first Croydon-wide Multi-agency Steering Group.

We were thrilled to be awarded funding to continue providing our much-needed workshops for free.

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Who should attend our workshops?

Modern Slavery and Anti-trafficking workshops are for:

Schools, colleges, and universities – students, parents, and teachers
Professionals, businesses, and networking groups
Community groups, churches and faith groups, local charities, and forums
Care sector workers, GPs, pharmacies, and related professionals
Small to large enterprises, micro-business owners, and sole-traders

Why you should attend

Whether a concerned parent, business owner or local Croydon resident, you can help make a Slavery Free Croydon by being aware of what’s happening in your neighbourhood and workplace.

For many reasons, including the proximity to Gatwick Airport, situating of Lunar House (National Immigration Centre) and over 1000 refugees and asylum seekers currently being housed in temporary accommodation, Croydon currently has one the highest levels of human trafficking in London, accroding to NRM statistics. Reporting is growing: there were 10,613 reported potential victims in the UK in 2020, but the true figure is likely to be significantly higher due to under-reporting. During the period January 2022 to December 2022, Gov.uk shows 16,938 potential victims reported in the UK, showing the need for community awareness and safe reporting is escalating each year.

Croydon is also one of the boroughs with both the highest number of children identified as victims of modern slavery being referred into care and the highest numbers of criminal exploitation and labour exploitation.

Benefits of attending our workshop

Gives you and your team the understanding and knowledge of:

Creating Slavery Free Croydon
Keeping vulnerable people in your community safe
How to ensure children, teens, and young adults are aware of Modern Slavery
Identifying and reporting concerns safely for employees
Consumer confidence in your supply chain (for businesses)

What is included in the 1-hour workshop?

Our Modern Slavery workshop helps to provide understanding and knowledge of:

What Modern Slavery is and the legal framework supporting anti-trafficking
How to spot the signs and types of exploitation online and in-person
How grooming of children and adults occurs online and in-person
Where and how exploitation is likely to occur
What you can do to safely report and help those at risk

Our business and professional workshops include all of the above and:

Modern Slavery, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and ethical business practices
Where exploitation is likely to occur in your supply chain
Why having anti-slavery statements is important (even if it’s not a legal requirement for your business or workplace)

Costs and location of workshops

Our workshops are currently FREE.

We are a volunteer-led community interest group and we aim to make a Slavery Free Croydon. We provide both online and in-person workshops within Croydon.

Our experience includes specialist training and workshops. This includes schools, colleges and universities, churches and faith groups, charities, and community groups. We offer tailored packages for professionals, businesses, and network groups, as well as bespoke talks and presentations.

If you find value in the workshops provided, we welcome new members, volunteers and donations.

How to book