2021 Accelerator Program Updates

• The Lantern Project (formerly Seattle Against Slavery) is an organization dedicated to combatting labor and sex trafficking. Their online platform Freedom Signal enables direct service organizations to send targeted, text-based outreach to potential victims of online sex trafficking or sexual exploitation. [Since the close of the Accelerator, the Lantern Project ceased its operations; Freedom Signal is now being managed by Scarlet Hope]  
• Unseen UK provides direct support to survivors and uses its frontline expertise to inform anti-trafficking and modern slavery advocacy efforts. Unseen runs the Modern Slavery Helpline and Resource Centre which provides victims, the public, statutory agencies, and businesses with access to information and support on a 24/7 basis.

• Software-as-a-Service Business Model: TAT supported both organizations in developing a sustainable business model for their respective technology platforms: Freedom Signal and The Modern Slavery Helpline and Resource Center.  
• Data Analysis and Productization: TAT supported both organizations in optimizing their data infrastructure and making sense of the human trafficking data they collect. In both cases, data was extracted and analyzed in a cloud environment hosted by Amazon Web Services. Leveraging technologies developed in the previous TAT Accelerator in partnership with the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative, the organizations created synthetic datasets from the human trafficking data they collect to share data responsibly and by preserving the privacy of victims. Dynamic graph technology developed by Microsoft Research was applied to these anonymized datasets, allowing the organizations identify patterns and generate insights. In turn, this will help the organizations improve operational efficiency and provide more effective services to reduce human trafficking. A more detailed description of the outputs is provided on our blog post.

Outputs were shared at a virtual Showcase event that brought together technologists, nonprofits, academics, governments, and policymakers from 60 countries to celebrate the close of the Accelerator in May 2022. Watch the recording of the event.