Unloosing the Chains of Injustice

Saturday 27th November, 09:20-13:20

Welcome

Dr Elaine Storkey
A global perspective on modern slavery, in the light of the Covid pandemic and other recent trends. Includes Q&A.

Tim Nelson
Do we know where our purchases come from? Do our retailers and online suppliers? And what can we do about it? Tim will address the structural underpinnings of slavery, looking particularly at supply chain as a business issue and the work of the Slave-Free Alliance in countering this. Includes Q&A.

Mark Roques
The power of worldview in determining the worth of an individual. How materialism and Christianity tell different stories when it comes to slavery.

Anne Burghgraef
Beyond Rescue: the role of therapeutics in supporting victims to recovery and renewal

Followup sessions: Fridays 25th March and 29th April 2022, 20:00-21:30

Positive Provocations 1 (with Jackie Hird)
Despite fundamental overlaps between trafficking and prostitution, the links are not always obvious. Jackie Hird will talk about the nexus of homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution which enslave many women and girls, those who profit by this, thus ensuring that they stay on the streets as sex workers and Joanna Project’s work to minister to them.

Positive Provocations 2 (with Dr Caitlin Lance Hope and Michael Pease)
Between 80-90% of children in global orphanages are not orphans as many understand that term, but rejected, abandoned or ‘sold’ due to poverty or social disgrace. Orphanages can be a conduit for child exploitation and trafficking unbeknown to the thousands of NGOs, churches and Christians who support them. How can we guard against this and what better solutions are there to the ‘orphan crisis’?

Dr Elaine Storkey is an academic in social and philosophical theology, and has taught at universities in the UK and overseas – including Ethiopia, India and Haiti. She is a member of High Table at Newnham College, Cambridge, a former Vice-President of Gloucestershire University and President of the Anglican theological body, Fulcrum. She lectures on the postgraduate Christian Mind Course at Oxford University. She was President of Tearfund from 1997 to 2014 and helped spearhead the joint Tearfund / Christian Aid / CAFOD partnership on climate change. She has been involved in broadcasting for twenty-five years, with the BBC, Channel 4 and podcasts. She has authored several books; her two most recent ones are Scars Across Humanity (looking at violence and injustice against women, including sex trafficking) and Women in a Patriarchal World. She was a member of the Church of England’s General Synod for 28 years and was Anglican delegate to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the World Council of Churches. She serves on numerous boards, councils and working parties addressing the interface of culture and Christianity.

Tim Nelson is the co-founder and CEO of Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance. Hope for Justice is an international charity working to bring an end to modern slavery and human trafficking and offers an effective and proven model that is replicable, scalable, and award-winning. The charity’s vision is to live in a world free from slavery and its work across five continents and in 8 countries is focused on preventing exploitation, rescuing victims, restoring lives and reforming society. It does this through community engagement and outreach; investigation and rescue; survivor support and advocacy; community prevention and anti-trafficking education; residential and non-residential aftercare and transitional care; family reintegration; training; campaigning and policy work; and business engagement via our Slave-Free Alliance division. Tim created and launched Slave-Free Alliance, which works with more than 80 organisations including 8 FTSE 100 companies to protect their supply chains against modern slavery. Tim has a background in Finance and Technology.

Mark Roques is a lively story-teller who has entertained many audiences with his down-to-earth spirituality. He has debated with atheists on Premier Christian Radio and appeared on Channel 4, the BBC World Service and the Australian ABC network. Mark taught philosophy and RE for many years and is now Director of Thinking Faith Network’s RealityBites strand.

Anne Burghgraef is the Clinical Director of Solace Surviving Exile and Persecution, a specialist therapeutic service for refugees and asylum seekers in Yorkshire. Her interest in what enables human flourishing has led to studies in theology and philosophy as well as feminism, psychology and psychotherapy. Previously Anne developed and tutored a distance learning course on Gender and Public Policy for the Theology & Politics program at Sarum College, and more recently was the lead writer for a City of Sanctuary mental health resource pack. Anne is a Trustee of Thinking Faith Network.

Jackie Hird is the Director of Joanna Project, a Charity in Leeds that works with women trapped by addiction and street sex work. Joanna Project uses a long term, relational, whole person approach which seeks to help women, make the changes they need and want. Before coming to Joanna Project in 2009 Jackie was a Mental Health Occupational Therapist, an Antenatal teacher, a Carer Support worker and a foster carer. The roles she is proudest of are that of being a wife and mum to 3 children, now grown up. Otley Parish Church keeps her busy where she is a Licenced Lay Minister. She will go almost anywhere and speak to anyone, in order to achieve a wider and deeper, understanding of the challenges and issues faced by the women Joanna Project serves.

Dr Caitlin Lance Hope is a UK-based Aussie who manages the therapeutic team at SFAC – a small UK children’s charity with a global reach. She has also lived and worked with trauma survivors and vulnerable children in India and Kenya. Caitlin enjoys the challenge of translating academic research and concepts into accessible, everyday language that anyone can connect with and apply in their daily life. Especially if it means she can get out her pencils and paint and add in an illustration or two.

Mick Pease is the Founder of SFAC. A Yorkshire coal miner turned social worker with Leeds City Council and global child advocate, Mick has had a life of unexpected twists and turns! After he and his wife, Brenda, spent a year volunteering at an orphanage in Brazil, he found he had some questions. Why were so many of the children living in an orphanage when most had family members? He started digging around for answers and accidentally found himself on a journey, a pioneer in what is now a global movement. Just over 20 years later he’s now a published author of “Children Belong in Families – A Remarkable Journey Towards Global Change” and the charity he started has worked with organisations in over 40 countries.

The events will be hosted Thinking Faith Network’s Patricia Gray (Executive Director), Cal Bailey (Chair of Trustees) and David Hanson (Trustee). You can find out more about them on our team page.