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Rebuild East Midlands is proud to join the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) as a member of its NGO caucus.
We are a lived-experience-led charity and the only organisation of our kind based in the East Midlands, supporting adults to rebuild their lives after exploitation, including modern slavery and human trafficking.
Our work focuses on long-term, trauma-informed support that helps people move from harm to stability and independence. Alongside this, we work with businesses and partners to strengthen responsible business conduct, and shift focus towards prevention, and reduce the conditions that allow exploitation to occur in the first place.
Why we chose to join ETI
Preventing exploitation and protecting people’s rights requires systems to work together.
Survivor support, responsible recruitment, supply chain due diligence, and accountability are not competing approaches, they are interdependent. When one fails, people are put at risk.
ETI’s multi-stakeholder model reflects how meaningful change happens in practice: through collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement, rather than one-off compliance. Its emphasis on person-centred approaches, prevention, and effective remediation aligns closely with how Rebuild works in practice.
As a lived-experience-led organisation, we are particularly drawn to ETI’s commitment to listening to those most affected by exploitation and ensuring that responses are practical, proportionate, and focused on real outcomes for individuals and communities.
“My own lived experience of exploitation and homelessness has shaped my entire career. I’ve worked across frontline survivor support, perpetrator accountability, and complex global supply chains, and one thing is clear: these aren’t competing approaches. Real progress only happens when they work together.
ETI matters to us because it brings those worlds into the same space, and because those of us with power and influence have a responsibility to create viable alternatives to the pathways that lead people into exploitation in the first place.”
Paul McAnulty, CEO, Rebuild East Midlands
What we bring to the ETI community
Rebuild brings insight grounded in lived experience and frontline delivery, shaped by what people tell us has supported their safety, recovery, and long-term independence — and where systems have failed to prevent harm.
Through the NGO Caucus, we hope to:
- Contribute survivor-informed perspectives to discussions on prevention, due diligence, and remediation
- Share learning on how policies and standards translate into lived experience
- Support constructive challenge that strengthens accountability and improves practice
- Learn from others addressing complex labour rights risks across sectors
We are particularly interested in how lived-experience insight can meaningfully inform responsible business conduct — not as an add-on, but as a core part of effective risk management and responsible sourcing.
Looking ahead
Over the coming year, Rebuild East Midlands will actively engage in the ETI NGO Caucus, contributing to shared learning and collaboration across the membership.
We also see ETI membership as a way to strengthen our own Rebuild Business Ambassador programme, ensuring it remains aligned with the ETI Base Code, grounded in evidence, and focused on prevention as well as response.
Ultimately, our ambition is to be part of a community that is serious about protecting individuals, reducing harm, and creating viable alternatives to exploitation, recognising that sustainable change happens when systems, incentives, and power are aligned around people.