Practice Area 4: Engagement

Key actions for individuals and organisations when determining reasons for engagement 

Determine the key reason why you need to engage people with lived experience. 

• The reasons for engagement will vary and may be for the purpose/s of:
  • identification and referral
  • providing support services
  • remediation and other supports
  • investigation and legal and criminal justice proceedings
  • research
  • engaging with the media
  • seeking expertise to inform NGO, community, business or governmental policies or programs or human rights/modern slavery due diligence processes or international legal requirements
  • monitoring and evaluation of human rights/modern slavery risks in operations.

Checklist: Creating meaningful engagement opportunities 

Understand the unique expertise of the people with lived experience you are engaging with. 

Be aware of and utilise tools available, such as the ‘Spectrum of Engagement or Lived Experience Inclusion Ladder‘ to situate your level of engagement. 

Be aware of and utilise tools that support surveying and evaluating your progress to increase effective and meaningful engagement, such as the Meaningful Engagement of People with Lived Experience Toolkit. 

Develop a range of options which can be provided to people who have experienced modern slavery for their decision as to how they would like to engage. 

Define the process, scope, and timing of the engagement early in the engagement process, and keep people who have experienced modern slavery informed of any changes. 

• More information about defining the process, scope, and timing can be found in the Modern Slavery Lived Experience Engagement and Empowerment guidance document.

What is tokenistic engagement? 

Tokenistic engagement can refer to individual and organisations who engage without providing real opportunities for people who have experienced modern slavery to offer input, challenge, make decisions, and transform practice. 

Spotlight on transparency 

Meaningful engagement relies on transparency. Individuals and organisations should set clear expectations about the expected level of engagement, as well as how lived expertise would be used and implemented. This means being clear in situating their engagement on the Spectrum of Engagement, and communicating the extent to which implementation of their advice is possible. This will be important to support people who have experienced modern slavery to understand and tailor their advice, and for organisations to understand how, and to what extent, to use that advice.

The Guidance on Reasonable Steps developed by the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner may also be useful for some stakeholders in this context. 

Key actions for individuals and organisations when determining their approach to engagement

• Determine the necessity of your engagement with people who have experienced modern slavery.
  • Is your organisation ready to engage at this stage?
  • Is the person engaging with other individuals and organisations on the same matters?
  • Is it appropriate for you to engage people who have experienced modern slavery for the identified purpose?
• Consider how you will ensure that engagement is not tokenistic.
• Determine what meaningful engagement looks like. How can you give control to people who have experienced modern slavery over as many aspects of their engagement as possible?
  • For example – by enabling choice and addressing potential power imbalances between individuals within your organisation and people who have experienced modern slavery.
• Determine the key objectives of engagement.
  • How will you engage with people with lived experience to achieve key objectives? How will you ensure that the wellbeing of people who have experienced modern slavery is prioritised over other objectives for example, deadlines and funding or reporting requirements?
• Determine the required level of expertise of the people during the engagement.
• Determine if the engagement requires additional supports.
  • For example, budgetary considerations, specialist support services etc.
  • Consider how the person with lived experience might benefit from engaging/participating. 

Regardless of the form an engagement might take, it is important that individuals and organisations are transparent at each stage, allow people with lived expertise space to exercise their own agency to determine how engagement should be approached, and respect any boundaries set by people who have experienced modern slavery during this engagement.

Engagement with people who have experienced modern slavery can take many forms, such as storytelling, advocacy, advice, co-design, or employment. Providing choices for how someone would like to participate in efforts to counter modern slavery is a key part of empowering engagement. 

The ‘Spectrum of Engagement’ and ‘Lived Experience Inclusion Ladder’ are tools that you can use to determine the most appropriate level of engagement, with each level of engagement contributing to a unique and valuable role. The highest level of engagement is co-design – while being able to increase lived experience control, leadership, empowerment, and visibility, it is not always the most appropriate option for engagement. However, principles of co-design can be considered in all aspects of engagement.

The diversity of voices, knowledge and expertise that exists in Australia is a powerful thing, and should be utilised to its full potential. There are a number of people who have experienced modern slavery who would not call themselves leaders or advocates, but all voices are equally important to be represented should they wish to engage and offer their advice and expertise. You should ensure that the process you choose to undertake to engage with people with lived experience does not exclude the voices, expertise and knowledge of people who may not be ready to engage at the higher levels of engagement, such as co-design. 

Individuals and organisations should ensure that people who have experienced modern slavery are ready to engage and are provided with the relevant supports (whether that is by your organisation or elsewhere).

Individuals and organisations can refer to the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery’s Meaningful Engagement of People with Lived Experience document and the Australian Government’s Modern Slavery Lived Experience Engagement and Empowerment guidance document for more information about the Spectrum of Engagement and Lived Experience Inclusion Ladder. 

Before you engage, you must receive informed consent from the person who has experienced modern slavery before progressing any further. Informed consent is not only required at the beginning of your engagement, but should be negotiated in an ongoing manner, throughout the entire engagement process (including in the design stage) and people should be reminded that they can withdraw their consent at any time during their engagement without negative ramifications.

It is important to remember that not all people will want to engage in the same kind of opportunities. The boundaries set by people who have experienced modern slavery should be respected.

The Modern Slavery Lived Experience Engagement and Empowerment guidance document includes a checklist to support the engagement process.

Survivor Alliance have developed some Ground Rules to support individuals and organisations to engage with people with lived experience.

The Freedom Story also provides some further information on creating safer spaces for people with lived experience to engage.

The Brave Space Guidelines have been developed by Survivor Connections to make engagements in the anti-slavery sector safer.

Difference between lived and learnt experience 

Lived experience is knowledge that has been gained through direct and first-hand experiences of modern slavery. Learnt experience can be defined as knowledge that has been gained through research, listening to accounts of modern slavery first‑hand, and working in the field.

The Human Trafficking Foundation and the UK Lived Experience Advisory Panel have developed a post event report summary on co-working between people with lived and learnt experience, which includes recommendations and resources on a range of topics, including: 

• Importance of co-working with lived and learnt experience.
• Lived experience leadership.
• Co-production of research.
• Equitable lived experience recruitment.
• Co-working in a media setting.
• Skills development alongside co-working.

Checklist: Consideration for all stages of engagement

Practising a trauma-informed and strengths-based approach to engagement. 

Following key values of engagement and incorporating these into planning materials. 

Ensuring that engagement remains lived experience-centred, and the knowledge and expertise of people who have experienced modern slavery is given equal and respectful consideration. 

Providing ethical and needs-specific care at all stages. 

Creating environments that are safe, accessible, inclusive, and sensitive to a diverse range of factors – including race, culture, faith, age, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. 

Ensuring clarity and transparency around how information is being used in this process and ensuring ongoing opportunities to review the information collected. 

Involving people who have experienced modern slavery in decision-making processes about their own experiences and expertise, and prioritising their views. 

Accessibility and inclusivity of language.

Case study – Engagement in practice #1

An NGO was invited to present on modern slavery to a range of diverse communities. To support these engagements, the NGO worked closely with their community partners to identify the distinct needs and priorities of each community, and to collaboratively design relevant and accessible outreach activities to the target audience. Throughout this process, the NGO continuously sought feedback from community partners to collaboratively refine their outreach plans. Additionally, after delivering the activities within the communities, there was a joint evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities through surveys and conversations. 

This case study has been provided by a specialist legal service working to respond to modern slavery.

Case study – Engagement in practice #2

A specialist legal service engaged with frontline workers to understand and research the social response to forced marriage and to learn about the supports available for those experiencing pressures to marry or in a forced marriage, and their families. The research is grounded in a specialist project run by this organisation which is focused on forced marriage response and prevention in Australia. The organisation was granted ethics approval and conducted focus groups across multiple and diverse key frontline sectors. Participants were recruited by email and phone invitations and invited to participate. Focus groups were recorded. All participants provided informed consent and understood that they could withdraw at any time. 

This case study has been provided by a specialist legal service working to respond to modern slavery.

Case study – Engagement in practice #3

The pilot Survivor Advisory Council (the Council) – established by The Salvation Army‘s Lived Experience Engagement Program (LEEP) with funding from the Modern Slavery Grants Program – is one of the key ways the Australian Government is engaging with survivors to empower them and incorporate their voice into policy, program and legislation to address modern slavery. To ensure all engagements with the Council are transparent, AGD and The Salvation Army developed a pre-session information sheet template for consulting government agencies to complete and provide to the Council prior to each engagement. This ensured that all government agencies provided clear information on the purpose of the engagement, background material, how advice would be used, and key next steps. This arrangement was successful in providing transparency and clarity to all participants, and supported government agencies to be transparent at all stages of the engagement process. Considering its effectiveness, this template has been tailored and used for other engagements with people with lived experience by government agencies, including AGD, and continues to support transparent and inclusive engagement that provides people with lived experience with the information required to make an informed decision about their participation. 

This case study has been provided by a government agency working to respond to modern slavery.

The National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has developed materials that discuss lived experience-centred practice and when and how you might consider remunerating people with lived experience. These resources include: Toolkit for Building Survivor-Informed Organizations and Survivor-Informed Practice Self-Assessment Tool. 

In a public consultation where people with lived experience are providing input voluntarily, remuneration may not be appropriate (for example, surveys or submissions), whereas targeted engagement session(s), events, or meetings that require preparation and work may require consideration of remuneration.

More useful resources: 

• The U.S. Department of State’s Engaging with Survivors of Human Trafficking Fact Sheet which provides information about when and how remuneration for people with lived experience should be considered.
• The Nothing about Us, without Us guidance for policy makers developed by Survivor Alliance and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab, details information to be considered in engagements with lived expertise.
• Survivor Alliance have created a fundamentals for compensation and expenses overview document on types of remuneration that individuals and organisations could consider.
• The Beyond Storytelling: towards survivor-informed responses to modern slavery report developed by Anti-Slavery Australia discusses the importance of recognising and valuing lived expertise through remuneration. It includes information and recommendations that individuals and organisations may consider incorporating into their consideration of best practice.
• This remuneration framework provides examples and guidance on how individuals and organisations could remunerate people with lived experience for their expertise. It was developed in 2024 by the Peel Regional Council in Ontario, Canada, and draws on international best practice literature and research.

Checklist: Considerations when determining remuneration for lived experience expertise 

Have you determined what kind of expertise your project requires?

• Do you require a certain level of lived expertise/ lived experience leadership?
• Do you require experience relating to a particular modern slavery offence?
• Do you require one or multiple lived experience experts? 

What is your budget for this project? 

Does your budget align with the kind of expertise that you require? 

Do you have internal fee structures that can support determining how remuneration aligns with levels of expertise? 

Have you determined and communicated the length of your engagement?

• For example, should it be a co-design process that will require a 6 month-commitment or one session to receive advice on next steps? 

Have you incorporated lived experience engagement into project planning and resourcing approvals? 

Have you considered the appropriateness of remuneration or the type of remuneration? 

• For example, if you are conducting public consultations where lived experience input is voluntary, remuneration may not be appropriate or possible. Whereas monetary remuneration or other relevant consideration (i.e. stipends, childcare support etc.) may be most appropriate for a targeted engagement. 

Have you determined what is included in the remuneration package? 

• For example, preparation time, travel costs, caring arrangements (i.e. childcare), support services (i.e. psychological support) etc. 

Have you considered the practicalities of how you will remunerate people you are engaging? 

• Are there invoicing systems established to pay lived experience experts?
• Are you able to provide a written contract to the lived experience expert?
• If they do not have a registered ABN, are you in a position to assist?

Have you considered the accessibility of your engagement?

• Is the time and location of the meeting easy for people to participate with no additional cost burdens to themselves?
• If travel is required for in-person participation, have options been provided to cover costs of travel and other incidentals?
• If people are required to leave dependents in care to participate, have options been provided to cover care arrangements? 

Have you considered your responsibilities under any relevant procurement and budgeting processes and applicable legislation? 

Have you considered how engagement will benefit the person with lived experience expertise?

Have you considered how this engagement could contribute to empowerment or healing for the person with lived experience? 

• For example, how are you making sure that you do not reproduce exploitative dynamics in this engagement?

Case study – Agency in practice #2

A client referred to a specialist support organisation had experienced modern slavery, and was interested in reporting his experience to the AFP, however he was unsure of the process and possible implications. A specialist legal service provided the client with advice and information about the criminal justice process, including how to make a report and what to expect if an investigation is opened, and addressed concerns around consent. Advice was provided on several occasions over a long period of time, as the client had follow-up questions and needed time to decide. Eventually the client decided not to proceed with making a report to the AFP. This was an informed decision made by the client, and one he was empowered to make on his own because he had all the information and support needed. The client felt safe to discuss his experience and concerns openly with the organisation, as they were able to provide support in the form he wanted. They were able to provide advice about other legal options for him. 

This case study has been provided by a specialist legal service working to respond to modern slavery.