The second Freewheel Hub was launched on 23 September. The launch took place pitch-side at St Andrew’s, the home of Birmingham City Football Club. The ground was the mid-point of a 25-mile bike ride, led by Gordon Miller, Ride for Freedom founder, that started and finished at the Biffa depot in Tipton, West Midlands.
Several colleagues from the Freewheel West Midlands Hub’s partners and supporters, including Aviva, Biffa, Halfords, Medaille Trust, Migrant Help, Orbea and Smart Solutions, joined the canal-side ride and welcomed the cyclists to their Birmingham facilities enroute.
The event was part of the week-long activities to launch the Freewheel West Midlands Hub. The previous Saturday, Birmingham City and its corporate partner, Biffa, invited Miller to showcase the Freewheel programme and talk with Blues’ fans about modern slavery and particularly human/child trafficking in football.
Miller said: “The Trafficking in Persons 2020 Report noted there are 15,000 victims annually in the name of football in Europe alone. Many are children/youths who are trafficked from Africa by criminals with the promise of trials that do not exist. Instead, they became exploited and enslaved.”
Ride For Freedom’s ‘Show A Red Card’ campaign shines a light on this issue. Since June 2021, Ride For Freedom has engaged, through participatory bike rides, with more than 30 football clubs across several leagues in England, including the Premier League, and in the German Bundesliga.
A Blues’ spokesperson said: “We are proud to welcome Biffa and its charity partner Ride For Freedom to St Andrew’s. Modern slavery is all too present in our communities – and is an issue the impacts football – and we stand behind them to raise awareness to eradicate this scourge from our game and society.”
The Freewheel West Midlands Hub is the second one to be launched this year. The established Freewheel Hub in Barking & Dagenham, London, has already seen upwards of 20 survivors of human trafficking, labour and sexual exploitation, all forms of modern slavery, empowered to cycle since it was launched in March 2022.
Ride For Freedom, a not-for-profit social enterprise, delivers the service by giving 20-30 survivors per annum at each Freewheel Hub bikes and accessories to keep, and providing them with cycling proficiency and road awareness training to the Government endorsed, national Bikeability standard.
Mel Flogdell, Biffa’s Divisional HR Director, said: “We take a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery of any kind, so we’re thrilled to support Gordon and the Ride For Freedom Freewheel West Midland Hub to reinforce what we’re doing to tackle the problem.”
#ShowARedCard #EndModernSlavery #RideForFreedom
About Ride For Freedom
Ride For Freedom’s SDG 8.7 aligned mission is to harness the universal appeal of cycling to raise awareness, educate and forge partnerships to end modern slavery and to provide remedy to survivors through its operational Freewheel programme.
Ride For Freedom achieves its mission by creating and leading unique cycling challenges and events and by partnering with high impact sports clubs, companies and aligned charities.
The cycling challenges fundraise to support the development of Freewheel by Ride For Freedom that empowers survivors of modern slavery to cycle.
The intended outcomes are that survivors will gain additional independence and mobility, and improved mental and physical health and wellbeing to support their rehabilitation into society.
Please donate to make a difference to their lives.
If you’d like to fundraise for Ride For Freedom, please get in touch info@RideForFreedom.org