Anti-Slavery Day Community Conference: Raising Awareness of Modern Slavery Through Interactive Theatre
How 2engage CIC used Risking It All to start conversations about grooming, county lines and child criminal exploitation at the London Borough of Bexley’s Anti-Slavery Day Community Conference.
The Challenge
According to the latest Global Slavery Index, an estimated 120,000+ people are living in modern slavery in the UK – more than the population of Exeter (Anti-Slavery International, 2026).
Raising awareness is vital to helping communities understand the realities of exploitation, recognise the warning signs and identify ways to protect vulnerable young people.
The London Borough of Bexley’s Anti-Slavery Day Community Conference brought together professionals, local residents, parents, carers and young people to explore modern slavery and exploitation. The event provided an opportunity to share lived experiences and highlight the importance of safeguarding within the community.
To support these aims, 2engage was invited to deliver Risking It All, our impactful theatre production exploring grooming and child criminal exploitation.
What We Did
2engage delivered a performance of Risking It All as part of the Anti-Slavery Day Community Conference.
The production uses real stories to explore how young people can become vulnerable to grooming, sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation, bringing complex and sensitive issues to life through relatable characters and situations.
Through the performance, 2engage aimed to:
- Raise awareness of exploitation.
- Highlight warning signs and help audiences recognise how exploitation can develop.
- Encourage safeguarding conversations between young people, families, professionals and the wider community.
- Challenge perceptions of exploitation and increase understanding of the experiences of those affected.
- Promote awareness of support available and the importance of protecting vulnerable young people.
Our Approach: Using theatre to bring real-world issues to life
At 2engage, we use theatre as a powerful tool for communication, learning and social change.
Our productions explore issues through storytelling, helping audiences connect with the experiences of others and reflect on topics that can otherwise be challenging to discuss.
Risking It All explores how grooming, peer pressure, risk-taking behaviour and seemingly positive relationships can develop into dangerous and exploitative situations. By following the experiences of its characters, audiences are encouraged to consider how exploitation happens and the consequences for those affected.
At the Community Conference, the performance provided a compelling way to communicate these messages to a diverse audience, making the issues relevant and accessible to people with different experiences and levels of understanding.
Our Impact
Feedback from attendees highlighted the power of the production to communicate complex issues in an engaging and thought-provoking way.
Alice Dunn, Violence Against Women & Girls and Modern Slavery Co-ordinator at the London Borough of Bexley, said:
“I honestly can’t speak highly enough of Ed and the whole 2engage team. From the very beginning, Ed was professional, approachable, communicative and incredibly easy to work with, and really took the time to understand our event and what we wanted the performance to achieve.
The theatre cast were absolutely amazing. The performance was powerful, engaging and thought-provoking, and had a real impact on the room. We’ve already received such positive feedback from attendees, which is testament to just how brilliantly the cast delivered such a sensitive subject.
It was genuinely a pleasure working with everyone involved. I’ll definitely be recommending 2engage to colleagues and other services, and would love the opportunity to work together again in the future.”
One attendee said:
“Outstanding and powerful demonstration of how people can be drawn into gangs and resulting modern slavery. Provides a deep understanding of this issue.”
Another said:
“This was a very powerful but also very real piece of drama, based on actual real-life stories that raises awareness of root causes, highlights the warning signs and shows how exploitation develops.”
Learn More
Find out more about Risking It All and learn how 2engage can support your school, organisation or community through impactful theatre and arts-based learning.
Interested in working with 2engage CIC?
