Causeway partner on Artificial Intelligence project to support modern slavery survivors
Causeway have joined forces with leading voices in the modern slavery sector to collaborate on an innovative research project aimed at improving outcomes for survivors.
Project RESTART (Reporting Experiences of Survivors to Analyse in Real-Time), is a collaboration between Aberystwyth University, Causeway, Ethical AI company Trilateral Research (TRI), and FiftyEight – an organisation that addresses modern slavery in business supply chains.
RESTART will use an ethical AI technology developed by Trilateral Research known as ‘Honeycomb,’ that will collect testimonies from survivors supported by Causeway, as well as information from a new app that has been developed specifically for this research project.
Modern slavery survivors who have been supported by Causeway will use the app to input details of their current well-being and support needs, including details of the support they have received through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the government system for identifying and supporting modern slavery survivors in the UK.
Honeycomb will use natural language processing capabilities to analyse these statements in real-time. It will then use the data to find key patterns and trends that will go on to form insights into survivors’ recovery experiences, and to produce robust recommendations for policymakers aimed at improving survivors’ access to legal, health, welfare, and housing advice in the UK.
Phillip Clayton, Head of Research and Development at Causeway said:
“The project has the potential to create a paradigm shift in engagement with those with lived experience of slavery, empowering marginalised and vulnerable people to simultaneously have greater influence over their own path to recovery and wider policy change.”
Prof. Alex Balch, Director of Research at the Modern Slavery PEC, said:
“Policymakers need high-quality evidence to make the changes needed in policies to protect people from modern slavery in the UK. RESTART will bring together leading researchers, technology specialists and, importantly the expertise of people with lived experience to provide data that is robust, accurate and innovative to drive forward and at pace the solutions we need to address modern slavery in the UK.”
RESTART has been funded by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy & Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC), which in turn is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).