To fulfill this goal Humanity United will dedicate resources to broaden the membership and the mandate of the coalition. HU will hire a full-time Director to run the coalition. This Humanity United staff member will be exclusively dedicated to the management and facilitation of the coalition, and will have significant support from Humanity United's other functional areas (communications, policy, research, and investments). HU will provide additional resources to support capacity building and programming within member organizations, as well as to support research, communications, outreach, and lobbying work on behalf of the coalition as a whole.
Broaden Mandate:
- Policy and government relations will be the engine driving the coalition's activities in the near term, but there will be an increasing focus on strategic communications, grassroots constituency building, supply chains and related private sector issues, and on the development of strategies to directly address the eradication of slavery overseas, in the countries where the problem is the most acute.
- The Director will design and manage a collaborative planning process, working with members to refine the coalition's strategy and specific goals, and to develop annual workplans within each area of activity.
Expand Membership:
Currently, there are nine member organizations representing a diverse swath of the U.S.-based anti-slavery movement. Over time, membership will expand to incorporate additional organizations that represent a constituency, point of view, or subject matter expertise that is key to realizing the overall objectives of the coalition.
- Innovative individuals and key leaders, academics, and practitioners will be invited to serve in a formal advisory capacity.
- In addition, the coalition will seek a number of affiliate or allied organizations to complement the existing expertise and representation among current members.
- Each member is expected to attend the majority of meetings, in person or by phone; participate regularly in at least one working group; and make coalition projects an organizational priority with sufficient resources allocated to them.
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking is a nascent coalition of nine U.S.-based organizations dedicated to slavery eradication. Since the spring of 2007, Humanity United has supported the coalition to focus exclusively on U.S. government policymaking. With the December 2008 reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (including 20 of 22 amendments supported by the coalition), the publication of an extensive policy paper to inform the incoming Obama administration, and the development of capacity for lobbying and other legislative work around federal appropriations, it is clear that a donor-driven coalition of committed organizations can significantly impact the way the phenomenon of modern-day slavery is combated.
As a result of these early successes, and the recognized need for more and better collaboration among U.S. based anti-slavery organizations, Humanity United recently made the decision to formalize the coalition, expand its mandate, build its membership, and to dedicate significant resources to its long-term success.
The overall goal of Humanity United, with the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, is to advance the modern anti-slavery movement through better cohesion, collaboration, and complimentarity, and, in the process, to create a network through which member groups and others can most effectively work together and share information and best practices on anti-slavery and trafficking initiatives.
SEEKING: financial assistance, media and marketing opportunities. Our 'Implementing Partners' (members of ATEST) will engagement in the development and implementation of the ATEST workplan, communications strategy, and other agreed plans listed in the 'metrics' section below. We will continue to gather best practice information from ATEST partners and welcome hearing from others on this topic.
OFFERING: implementing partnership, best practice information. ATEST can partner with other organizations/entities or share expertise on slavery and trafficking as related to policy reform, advocacy, corporate engagement, media outreach, etc.
