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FREEDOM COLLABORATIVE / POLARIS. The Global Modern Slavery Directory’s new update offers greater user safety and expanded resources, USAID Asia CTIP launches its latest Adaptation Challenge, and ECPAT calls on Apple to stay on track with its child protection plans.
Today the Global Modern Slavery Directory (GMSD), managed by Polaris, has undergone a substantial redesign in order to improve user experience and safety, and ÁGAPE is still being part of it. Thanks to a generous grant by the Carlson Family Foundation, Polaris has been able to give the GMSD a much needed update, and the website now has a more interactive and user-friendly interface, provides additional information about the organizations listed, offers a mobile/tablet version, and gives a clearer visualization of the global anti-trafficking field.
When the GMSD first launched in 2014, it was a first-of-its-kind publicly searchable database of more than 770 organizations and hotlines working on human trafficking and forced labour. Its goal was to enable actors in the anti-human trafficking field to locate, identify and connect with each other more easily, as well as to help victims of human trafficking and at-risk populations find the services they needed.
In 2017, Polaris partnered with Freedom Collaborative, exchanging information about registered members in order to enhance knowledge sharing and collaboration, and reduce duplication across the anti-slavery community. Over the past few years, more than 2,100 organizations have been added to the GMSD, it has been translated into Spanish and French, and a yearly vetting process has been instituted. These improvements have enabled more than 142,000 visitors to the site to connect to much needed resources and services. The GMSD has also become the primary resource for international cases dealt with by the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, which has been used in more than 5,700 potential international trafficking cases since 2014.
Earlier in the year, Polaris solicited the community’s advice on how to make the GMSD better and, after months of research and work, it was able to implement many of your suggestions in its redesign.
Safety was at the forefront of the planning process. After holding focus groups with GMSD users, including survivors, Polaris learned that it was critical to ensure a safe browsing experience. To this end, it has instituted two safe browsing tools: the safe browsing toggle, which can be turned on and off, and an effective quick exit button, both of which follow the user as they navigate throughout the site.
It is now easier to locate services quickly with the addition of a “suggested provider” on the home page, based on the user’s location if location services are activated on their device.
The search filters have been updated to include more options, and the list of suggested resources is refreshed as more filters are chosen. You can also download a CSV file of all the service providers listed in the GMSD, based on filtered search results. Once search filters have been selected, you’ll see “first glance” information about the service providers underneath the map. By clicking the “see more” button, users will be brought to the organization’s main page within the GMSD, which provides more information, including publicly available phone numbers and hours/days of operation, hotline services, the organization’s mission statement, countries of operation, and services provided filtered by populations served.
