RESTART – The Reporting Experiences of Survivors to Analyse in Real Time – was a multi-disciplinary research project which involved a proof of concept of using AI software and a custom mobile app to analyse modern slavery survivor’s stories for insights to improve support. Funded by the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), the project was headed by Aberystwyth University in cooperation with modern slavery survivor support charity, Causeway, modern slavery research and technology specialists FiftyEight and ethical AI development and research company Trilateral Research.
RESTART aimed to provide policy makers with a better understanding of survivor needs, how they should be prioritised and how they change over time, as well as how to better align support packages with what they actually need. It also aimed to help change the way stakeholders see the potential of data science methods – in particular Natural Language Processing (NLP) — in engaging with survivors, giving them a voice and providing them with support. This chapter shares the learning of this ground breaking project, which found AI to be effective in analysing survivors’ needs and challenges consistent with results from conventional research methods, but at scale and in real-time. It also demonstrated how technology can improve support for survivors of modern slavery and enable faster insights for policy makers, support providers, the private sector and others who are trying to address the systemic challenges of modern slavery