The 2022 Eva Burrows Australian Leadership Scholarship has been awarded to Claudia Cummins.
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Claudia is the Safe House Program Manager at The Salvation Army's Trafficking and Slavery Safe House in Sydney, NSW. She supports and works closely with survivors of modern slavery, including trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, domestic servitude, and forced marriage. As survivors recover from exploitation experiences, Claudia and her team work to restore safety and autonomy and help them build new independent lives. We are pleased to support Claudia’s education and professional development in this significant work. Claudia shares with us more about her passion and vision below. |
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Tell us about yourself and what is your current role?
I am a social worker who has been working with The Salvation Army since 2016. I have just come into the NSW/ACT State Manager position for Family Violence and Modern Slavery Response, however up until 2023 I have worked at The Salvation Army’s Trafficking and Slavery Safe House. I am very proud that The Salvation Army’s Safe House was the first Australian women’s refuge for survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery, and I have witnessed first-hand the incredible outcomes of survivors who have accessed our support services and gone on to thrive.
What inspires you to apply for the Eva Burrows Leadership Scholarship?
I am always excited to learn new things and the Eva Burrows Leadership Scholarship presents an excellent opportunity to undertake further study as well as engaging in mentoring.
What course will you be doing and why?
I will be studying a Graduate Certificate in Modern Slavery at Notre Dame University, which takes 12 months to complete part-time. The course contains units such as Policing Human Trafficking, Ethical Production of Goods and Services and Law and Modern Slavery. Although I have learnt about the impacts of modern slavery and the support needs of victim-survivors from my work at the Safe House, I hope to gain deeper knowledge on the matter from a legal and business perspective which will enhance my subject matter expertise.
What are you hoping to see as a result of this training?
I am looking forward to making the time and space to think more deeply about some of the complex challenges I have seen in anti-slavery work and hope to find new ways of addressing these issues. For example, one gap in the anti-slavery sector currently is the lack of a modern slavery screening tool designed for the Australian context. I am hoping further study and the connection with Notre Dame University may create possibilities to improve this issue so that we can be better identifying and responding to modern slavery in Australia. We have a unique opportunity at The Salvation Army to play a role in identifying those at risk due to the size, spread and scope of our presence across Australia.