All in favor! Promoting access to rights for victims of trafficking through the joint action of Mist mediators and BPS volunteer lawyers (since 2021)
Ongoing project
Aims: To promote information and access to rights for victims of pimping and human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, through the joint work of Mist’s peer mediators and volunteer lawyers of the Bus Paris Solidarité (BPS). Joint outreach work and free consultations by the lawyers in the Bois de Vincennes. Guidance, listening and information by Mist at the Point d’Accès aux Droits (PAD) in the 18th arrondissement. Training for lawyers. Collective identification of difficulties in accessing rights and mobilisation of volunteer lawyers to support victims in filing complaints. Raising awareness and training police officers.
Funding: Paris City Council, Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF)
Participative support for social innovation in favour of victims of trafficking: 6 projects for employment in rural areas (2023-24)
Ongoing project
Aims: Mobilising stakeholders in rural areas to promote employment for victims of trafficking and pimping. To support social initiatives through interregional exchange networks and disseminate a call for contributions to support six projects aimed at promoting access to the labour market for victims of human trafficking.
Funding: French agency for the management of the confiscated and seized proceeds of crime (AGRASC), Women Rights Administration (SDFE)
Legal empowerment of victims of trafficking (2022-24)
Ongoing project
Objectives: To support members of the collective who are working to promote the legal empowerment of victims of trafficking, by taking part in informing other victims, police and justice professionals, setting up discussion groups and working groups, studying the challenges linked to access to justice and access to protection, particularly in asylum seeker centres. Active members help other victims to learn about and mobilise the law, as part of an action combining community organisation, education and advocacy. The goal is to empower people facing injustice to make structural and transformative changes, using specific cases to build advocacy.
Funding: Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF)
Cinema: Speak up for Freedom! (2023-24)
Ongoing project
Aims: To support an artistic expression project produced by a group of active Mist members, in partnership with director Clément Sibony. To mobilise and support a group of members in a collective reflection on access to justice, the judicial treatment of Nigerian trafficking, the voice of victims, both in the courts and in society, the stigma of sexual exploitation, and the concepts of consent and ethics. Supporting the distribution of the movie “Speak up for freedom”.
Funding: My Movie / La Famiglia
Between Peers I and II – Promoting peer support for minors, within a group working to combat sexual exploitation: an innovative approach to child protection (2022-25)
Ongoing project
Aims: Promoting the reception and individualised co-accompaniment of minors in prostitution (and the adults who accompany them when necessary) by peer-helpers from Mist. Encourage them to use their rights to protection and/or access to justice. Promoting participation of these young people in discussion groups run by Mist peer-helpers. To enhance the skills of peer helpers in terms of welcoming and supporting young/minor victims of sexual exploitation (intentional conversation, stress and emotion management, non-violent communication, understanding trauma and psycho-trauma, acting as spokespersons and collectively building a case for victims against sexual exploitation, emotional and sexual life). Combating impunity for perpetrators of pimping and trafficking in human beings involving minors. Strengthening the prosecution of perpetrators in the courts by mobilising, accompanying and supporting victims who are witnesses or civil parties, through the association’s ad hoc administrator missions and/or the support of a peer-helper group. Strengthening the identification and assessment of damages caused to victims, through the implementation of judicial expertise and victim compensation procedures.
Funding: Social cohesion administration (DGCS)
EVA – Early identification and protection of Victims of trafficking in border Areas (2023-2024)
Ongoing project
Aims: To develop effective and sustainable national and transnational strategies for the early identification and access to protection of minors, girls and young women under the age of 30, alone or accompanied by child(ren), in border regions between Italy and France and Spain and France (Basque Country), as well as in reception centres located in Paris and in border regions close to Italy and Spain (Paris Ile-de-France, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) : access to shelters and safe spaces where people are protected and can access information on protection programmes against trafficking – in addition to potential referrals.
Partners: SAVE THE CHILDREN ITALY ONLUS ASSOCIAZIONE Italy (Coordination), CONSORZIO AGORA’ NETWORK SOCIETA’ COOPERATIVA Italy, Association Réflexion Action Prévention-communautaire (ARAP) France, FRANCE TERRE D’ASILE France, FUNDACION SAVE THE CHILDREN SPAIN Spain, REGIONE DEL VENETO Italy.
Experimental Parisian mechanism for identifying and referring victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation (MPEIO) (2022-23)
Project in progress
Aims: To improve the protection and geographical mobility of victims of trafficking and pimping, in particular via the national Ac.sé scheme. Helping victims from the Île-de-France region to find social and professional integration in other regions, in particular via the PSP (French national programme to quit prostitution). Supporting the existing women’s rights network, in partnership with the Paris Women’s Rights Delegate, and enabling the delegations to set up and/or develop departmental committees.
Funding: AGRASC, DRDFE, SDFE
History/OurStory (Since 2022)
Ongoing project
Aims: To promote a better understanding of the interconnections between personal histories and the wider history of humanity, through film screenings and debates.
In 2022, 28 members took part in 7 workshops on the History of Slavery, Segregation and Civil rights. They watched and debated about the following movies: Roots (The story of Kunta Kinte), 12 years a slave, Sankofa, Harriet, Selma, Malcolm X and Swallow.
In 2023, xx members took part in 8 workshops, focusing on Racism, Sexism, women’s rights and violence against women. They watched and debated about the following movies: Hidden Figures, Cairo 678, The Help, La Noire de…, The Swimmers, Shérahazade, Comme des reines and Divines.
When possible, researchers, academics, resource persons or external guests are taking part in the debates.
Thanks to Cynthia Olufade, Anthropologist, University of Alberta (Canada), Dr. Precious Diagboya, Philosopher, Institut français de recherche au Nigeria (IFRA-Nigeria), Dr. Elodie Apard, Historian, Institut de Recherche pour le développement (France), Dominique Somda, Historian, University of the Western Cape (South Africa), Chrystel Oloukoi, Anthropologist, Harvard University (USA), Ramata Ndiaye, Doctoral student in Sociology at URMIS and Srishty Anand from GAATW.
The power of the group in mental health (2023-24)
Ongoing project
Aims: To develop dedicated responses to victims of sexual exploitation by combining individual meetings, discussion groups and art therapy workshops, as part of a collaboration between a psychologist and peer-helper mediators. To improve the professional practices of the peer-helper mediators, who are developing their ability to respond to people’s needs in terms of psychological suffering.
Funding: Fondation de France
Life After Trafficking; Transnational Perspectives (Since 2023)
Ongoing project
Aims: To support the development of original forms of knowledge production by collecting data and putting into perspective the observations made in Europe and Nigeria. By using a multi-disciplinary participatory action research approach, the aim is to study the social, religious, economic and political dynamics underlying trafficking and, in particular, the relationships between victims benefiting from assistance programmes in Europe and their families in Nigeria.
Funding: IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), URMIS (Unité de Recherche Migrations et Société) and IFRA-Nigeria.
True Talk (Since 2021)
Ongoing project
Aims: To encourage people to speak out and develop innovative mental health solutions by producing podcasts. Small groups of members run discussion groups and record themselves.
For details of publications: Mist PODCASTS
To listen to the Mist podcasts already online: the Mist YOUTUBE page
Voice and participation of the impacted communities in process of change: a join learning initiative (2022-24)
Ongoing project
Aims: To carry out a collective reflection on how the concepts of “voice” and “participation” are understood within issues related to organisational functioning, principles, strategies and practices among eight partner organisations based in eight different countries, under the initiative of the Global Alliance Against Traffick in Women (GAATW).
Funding: GAATW
VoiceOver – Victims of trafficking in human beings support and Empowerment by means of a survivor leaders Engagement model (2023-24)
Ongoing project
Aims: The VoiceOver project stems from a self-critical analysis of anti-trafficking systems, in which the measures put in place do not always take into account the experiences of trafficked people themselves, or address them in a selective way, distilled and reproduced to validate certain stereotyped narratives on trafficking and what survivors want in terms of programmes, policies and interventions. People do not speak in their own voices. VoiceOver partners believe that this dynamic can be reversed by working with victims as real partners and making their voices heard as key stakeholders in the fight against trafficking.
Building information capacity by training 90 professionals and 20 survivors to empower them to participate in a meaningful way. To provide assistance to 90 victims of trafficking through peer mentoring, taking into account trauma and gender dimensions. Creating measures to facilitate the social and professional integration of 60 trafficked persons through peer-based programmes. To raise awareness on the involvement of survivors in the anti-trafficking community through a replicable model for NGOs, a set of recommendations for decision-makers, 5 podcasts and 2 international events.
Partners: Equality Cooperativa Sociale Italy, Payoke Belgium, University of Venice, Fondacion Cruz Blanca Spain, ADPARE Romania.
Funding: This project is funded by the European Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.