North America regional report, Chris Ash

Find below the report summary, key findings and download the full report.

Report summary

This report, prepared by Chris Ash, an anti-trafficking professional based in the southeastern United States, focuses on empowering survivor leadership and applying public health approaches to violence prevention. As the Survivor Leadership Program Manager for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) Chris brings a wealth of experience, including graduate study in gender and postcolonialism, over a decade of crisis response work with survivors of sexual violence, and experience as a community organiser and training provider for sexual violence prevention.

This report is part of the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre and University of Liverpool’s research on survivor engagement in international development programs, commissioned by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. It summarises insights from U.S. anti-trafficking professionals on key themes such as storytelling and tokenism, the need for professional development, problematic sector norms, and managing power dynamics, while also offering recommendations for evaluating meaningful survivor engagement.