Welcome to Spread The Word
Spread the Word improves working conditions in supply chains worldwide, giving a jump-start to responsible business initiatives.
Spread the Word offers innovative simple solutions to solve complex problems and boost the impact of workplace programs.
Spread the Word uses creative methodologies to promote worker-management engagement and inspire action with measurable results.
YOU KNOW THAT…
Profitability increases by 10% when OSH regulations are enforced
BUT STILL…
Struggle with “chronic” blocked emergency doors and unlabeled chemicals
YOU KNOW THAT…
Workers produce 1 hour faster when they are respected and abuse worry-free
BUT STILL…
Training is not enough to eliminate the verbal and physical abuses
YOU KNOW THAT…
Financial investment and true commitment lead to positive change
BUT STILL…
Doubt your efforts will be sustained
Real change starts
when everybody
understands and
participates.
Results
Bangladesh – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ understanding of their Social Security benefits grew from 39% to 97.5%
China (North) – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ understanding of the consequences of taking time off without requesting leave grew from 83% to 100%
China (South) – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ understanding about the rules for using the factory’s basketball court grew from 48% to 71%
Guatemala – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ understanding of the composition of their paycheck (benefits, overtime, basic salary, etc.) grew from 43% a 85%
India (North) – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ awareness of the existence of a factory’s Workers-Management Committee grew from 42.3% to 94.2%
India (South) – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ understand of their Social Security benefits grew from 45% to 75%
Vietnam – Factory Intervention – GAP, Inc.
Workers’ awareness of the existence of a factory’s Workers-Management Committee grew from 78% to 93%
Argentina – Phone APP – International Labor Organization (ILO)
User-friendly APP for migrant domestic workers, with information on their labor rights, national contacts, and access to networks to improve their working and living conditions
Tanzania – Mediation Training – International Labor Organization (ILO)
Increased mediators’ skills to resolve conflict between domestic workers and their employers.
Argentina – Social Compliance System – Desarrollo y Autogestion (DyA)
Participatory co-design (producers and farm workers) of a social compliance system to combat child labor in the yerba mate and blueberry productions.
Argentina – Organizational Strategy – Desarrollo y Autogestion (DyA)
Organize the growth vision and direction of a multi-country based organization
Switzerland – Organizational Strategy – Japan Tobacco International (JTI)
Using Lego to find a unified company definition of sustainability
Uzbekistan – Cotton Sector – Fair Labor Association (FLA)
Learner-centered toolkit for an engaging training process. Participants are able to learn from the trainer and their own active participation. Interactivity, engagement and fun for more effective learning.
Worldwide – Practical Guidance – Fair Labor Association (FLA)
Introducing ways in which buyers and suppliers can look at working conditions and labor standards at the subcontracting levels. Contains descriptions on how this can be done, and simple tools to maintain good working conditions and labor standards across the whole production process
Central America – Practical Report – International Labor Organization (ILO)
Practical analysis to inform and guide the company’s selection process for deciding which certification program to adopt
Myanmar – Labor Inspectors Training – International Labor Organization (ILO)
Interviewing techniques and conflict managment skills to motivate, persuade and gain the confidence of employers and workers to develop a culture of compliance.
Ukraine – Union Representatives Training – International Labor Organization (ILO)
Drafting an Action Plan to promote support to migrant domestic workers
China (North) – Samsung Employees Training – Center for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility (CCR CSR)
Awareness to eliminate any use of child labor and taking measures to ensure the company’s policy enforcement.
Americas – Sexual Harassment – International Labor Organization (ILO)
Employer and Worker Representatives co-designed tools to build a factory free of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
USA – Creative Problem Solving in the Factory – Fair Labor Association (FLA)
Multiple apparel brands including Under Armour, Delta Galil, Hanesbrand, Gymshark, Fanatics and Fenix Outdoor, explore creative options for solving common social compliance problems in the factory floor
Sri Lanka - STW 6-Step Methodology - GAP, Inc.
Training and coaching on implementation of the methodology applied by GAP Inc. auditors in factories worldwide.
Worldwide – SMETA Auditors Training Platform – SEDEX
Designed online platform to train SMETA Auditors from around the world in an engaging and highly visual way
Enthusiasts
Partners and Beneficiaries that share our enthusiasm include:
APPAREL BRANDS
Committed to be agents of change by promoting and supporting workers’ quality of daily life
FACTORIES
LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
WORKERS
Team
Ana Aslan
Co-Founder & CEO
Ana has over 18 years’ experience improving working conditions while increasing productivity across supply chains. She managed more than 30 worker rights projects in 26 countries, overseeing the strategic use of approximately $200 million of funds from the ILO and the US Department of Labor. She is a member of the Better Work Advisory Committee, along with representatives from US and European apparel brands such as GAP, Levi’s, Target and H&M.
She is passionate about the apparel sector’s power to propel social development and workers’ wellbeing worldwide.
Ana was born and raised in Argentina and currently resides in Washington DC where she can frequently be found sipping coffee and reading newspapers in English and Spanish.
Helena Perez
Co-Founder & Creative Director
Helena has contributed to creating better working environments for the past 19 years, as a labor lawyer for the ILO, the Fair Labor Association, and her own consultancy firm Improvingworklife. She has trained over 2,100 professionals from 190 organizations in more than 30 countries, including human resources professionals, CSR experts, labor inspectors and workers.
Her unique creative approach to finding solutions inspires labor practitioners, and led to the publication of her first book, Learning right: 222 small ideas for one big challenge A book for managers and trainers in global supply chains.
Helena lives in Madrid and loves to smile, doodle and being inspired by TEDtalks. She can find an interesting solution to almost any problem.
Advisory Committee
Sean Ansett
Sean Ansett is President at At Stake Advisors. With 20 years’ professional experience, Sean provides strategic advice to corporations, UN agencies and non-profit organizations, on ethical trade, human rights and environmental sustainability. He was the Head of Supplier Responsibility at Apple Inc. and the Director of Corporate Responsibility at Burberry in London. He was the Director of Global Partnerships at Gap Inc. where he led Gap Inc.’s social responsibility and stakeholder engagement strategy related to labor, environmental and human rights issues. He was the chief architect behind the company’s stakeholder engagement strategy significantly enhanced the company’s reputation. Sean is a member of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Board (a product standard for the circular economy), Chairman of the Board Liberty & Justice Clothing/ UNIFORM, Advisory Board Member of Build a Nest, Senior Associate University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Erb Institute University of Michigan External Advisory Board Member, former Executive Director of the Bangladesh Safety Accord and Co-founding team and Chief Sustainability Officer at Fairphone (the world’s first modular and ethical smart phone). Sean is a regular speaker and writer. He has contributed and is quoted in Bloomberg, Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal amongst others. He has a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge, Wolfson College and a Master’s of Science degree in Business Administration.
Elena Arengo
Elena Arengo has over 15 years of experience in corporate accountability and labor rights. She is currently Co-Executive Director of PODER, a Mexico-based NGO that advocates for corporate transparency and accountability on human rights. Before that, she was Senior Corporate Accountability Analyst at the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), in Washington focusing on the promotion of worker-led models of corporate accountability in supply chain industries. She is the author of “Future of Fashion: Worker-led strategies for corporate accountability in the global apparel supply chain”. From 2011 to 2015, she was Chief Technical Advisor for the ILO/IFC’s Better Work program in Nicaragua, where she established and coordinated a national program to monitor and improve conditions in the apparel export manufacturing industry. She has also previously worked on capacity-building programs for workers on labor rights and corporate accountability in several parts of the world, particularly Latin America, Bangladesh and Cambodia, first as Worker Training Program Coordinator and later as Latin America Program Director at Social Accountability International (SAI). She also coordinated programs for development and reproductive health in partnership with women’s organizations in Central America with MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization. Elena is an anthropologist by training. She grew up in Argentina and the US.
Angel Agueda Barrero
Angel Agueda Barrero is the CEO of EvergreenPM.com, and an expert in Organizational Transformation, Change Management, Project Management and Personal Effectiveness. For 20 years he worked as a Consultant and Project Manager at IECISA, Siebel, ING Nationale-Nederlanden and Microsoft, among other companies, traveling and sometimes living in Europe and South America. In 2012 he founded EvergreenPM whose greatest achievement is to have a team of excellent professionals and a long list of loyal customers. Angel is a fan of nordic walking, running and trekking, jazz and good crime novels and essays. Above all he enjoys family and friends, never stop learning, and supporting causes for a better world.
Nancy Contreras
Nancy Contreras is a supply chain sustainability expert with 20 years of experience in the apparel and retail industries. She was a member of the first Global Partnerships team at Gap Inc. in 2004, and founder of The Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) Forum (2005) for the Americas and the Americas Group (2009). Nancy supported the implementation of CIMCAW “Continuous Improvement in the Central American Workplace project” and lead the delivery of key capability building programs across the Americans region including: ILO/Better Work Haiti & Nicaragua, Gap Inc. Workplace Cooperation Program, Supervisory Skills Training program and the Sexual Harassment prevention (POSH) trainings in the Americas.
Maider Gorostidi
Maider Gorostidi has over 20 years of experience working on organizational development and innovation, human resources, and economic management of companies. Her focus is on dialogue at the company level, supporting leaders and teams successfully navigate organizational change. Maider has BAs in Law and Economics, and a master’s degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of Valladolid. She is currently a researcher on the PhD program in Human Rights: Ethical, Social and Political Challenges at the University of Deusto in Spain.
Darryl Knudsen
Darryl Knudsen is the Executive Director at International Rivers. Darryl has deep experience in the apparel, retail and electronics sectors and has served on numerous cross-sector boards, committees and working groups to advance the global agenda for improved human rights. He has spent much of his career within the corporate sector at the nexus of business, human rights, and global economic systems. Darryl provided leadership to win challenging human rights campaigns, including one that ended pervasive, state-sponsored, forced child labor in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan. Garnering powerful political support to protect local human rights leaders, he has been instrumental in transforming the apparel and retail sectors’ supply chain practices on labor rights, human rights, and gender practices. Darryl was appointed by two US Secretaries of Labor to serve on a US National Advisory Committee focused on trade and labor rights issues. He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Desta Raines
Desta Raines is the Director of Sustainability at Sephora Americas. She is a recognized global corporate responsibility leader with a proven track record of developing and operationalizing innovative approaches to supply chain challenges that focus on measurable impact, advocacy and multi-stakeholder engagement.
Kindley Walsh Lawlor
Kindley Walsh Lawlor is the President & CEO at Parks California. She is a champion of social justice and environmental sustainability, and a creator of multi-stakeholder partnerships. Kindley is driving Park California’s core mission to make California parks more welcoming, accessible, and relevant to all visitors. This work is done in partnership with California Department of Parks and Recreation, nonprofits, community groups, the private sector, and other organizations to expand park programs, amenities, and resources. She spent over 25 years as a Sustainability and Foundation leader specializing in fair and productive global apparel supply chains, with a focus on women’s education, worker rights and environmental impact. Kindley served two terms on the International Labor Organization’s Advisory Committee as the U.S. Buyer’s Representative for the ILO Better Work program. She is known as an innovative creator of public/private partnerships with a reputation as a respected collaborator. Kindley has experience working in urban, peri-urban and rural locations across 25 countries.
Connect
Workers and management sharing the table find common goals. @stwaction www.stwaction #supplychains pic.twitter.com/saOW3cYoCF
+1 (202) 870-9071
Simplify. Imagine. Spread The Word.
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