Snowdrop's New Chair of Trustees

We're delighted to share that Sam Dixon has been appointed as Snowdrop's new Chair of Trustees. Sam has been a Trustee of Snowdrop since 2022, and brings a wealth of experience in charity leadership to the position. Over to Sam...

"It's a real privilege to take on the role of Chair, and I am very grateful to Tim for his hard work and dedication, which has helped the Snowdrop Project become the charity it is today.

Many of us were stunned to hear Sir Mo Farrah’s 2022 BBC interview, in which he shared the trauma he experienced as a child when he was trafficked to the UK and forced into servitude in London. To many people, slavery felt like something consigned to the history books. However, as Mo’s story shows, slavery is very much still with us in the 21st century United Kingdom.

The Snowdrop Project was created twelve years ago as a heartfelt response to the needs of survivors of human trafficking. The aim has always been to give survivors every chance to live happy and fulfilled lives, recover from their pasts and build their futures. Our support focuses on those in South Yorkshire, but we also have a powerful voice on a national stage, advocating on behalf of all survivors of modern slavery and trafficking. Our work was recognised in 2021 through a Centre for Social Justice Award.

The Centre for Social Justice estimates that as many as 100,000 people are victims of modern slavery in the UK, but most go unnoticed. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery by which people are recruited and moved for exploitative reasons. It happens to all ages and nationalities, but is often prevalent amongst the most vulnerable groups of people, who are keen to build what they think will be a better future for themselves and their families. Sadly, this turns out to be the opposite. Exploitation can take a number of forms: labour, sexual, criminal, domestic or organ harvesting.

At the Snowdrop Project, 90% of those we support are women, mostly from the UK and Europe (35%). This includes women like Sophie, who was trafficked for six years from the age of 13 for sexual exploitation. Through this crime, everything was taken from her: her control, her dignity, her future, her voice. During the years she was trafficked, Sophie was hidden - she was a statistic, a number within the figure of "potential victims of trafficking in the UK". Sophie should never have been trafficked at all, let alone for so many years undetected. She wasn’t only a child, but a child in a school, a child with a GP, a child with foster parents and social workers - all of whom failed to identify that she was being tricked, controlled, tortured and sold every day.

The Snowdrop Project provides casework, counselling, community activities and house renovations for hundreds of people like Sophie across South Yorkshire each year. Over recent years, the average length of support provided to clients has increased to 2.5 years. This is in response to a greater complexity of mental health problems amongst clients and increased difficulties accessing statutory services such as housing support and social services.

We’ll continue to support people like Sophie, but we can only do so with support from our many stakeholders. Happily, Sophie is now a volunteer for The Snowdrop Project, demonstrating how, with the right support, survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking can be empowered to lead the lives they deserve."

We're so pleased that Sam has stepped into the role of Chair of Trustees, and we are grateful for her guidance and leadership thus far. Thank you, Sam!