Radical Empathy Education Foundation

One of our licensees, Uprising, runs an annual conference called Greater Rockies Immersive Training (GRIT), and they focus on human trafficking prevention. GRIT is a multi-day event for professionals in this field that breaks attendees into groups that follow a particular "case" from an outcry to prosecution. They learn from subject matter experts that include victims, law enforcement professionals, healthcare workers, social workers, prosecutors, legislators, and more. We have been part of their program offerings since their first year.

Their Executive Director, Terri Markham, provides an overview (from 2022) of how they have been using our VR application at their annual event and how they use it throughout the year to educate their community.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5lahqzdtjs "Hello, I'm Terri Markham, Executive Director of Uprising, a Wyoming-based anti-human trafficking non-profit. I'm hopping on this video real quick to spend a couple of minutes telling you about our experience so far working with Radical Empathy and Billy Joe Cain, and utilizing his "TRAPPED" virtual reality experience that he developed.

We got access to the technology, and our original intent was really just to bring an immersive, unique experience to our regional human trafficking conference called GRIT. The very first time I met Billy Joe and tried it, I knew it was going to be a really unique way to show people one way that human trafficking could look. When I experienced it, and when my family members who were with me experienced it, it elicited that empathy response, which is something that you cannot simply teach. So I knew that I wanted to get this technology and try it out.

Last May, at our conference, we actually built a whole case study around Lisa, the victim featured in the VR experience. Our attendees had a lot of positive feedback about that experience-they really enjoyed getting to step into the shoes of this case that they had been learning about throughout their conference experience. It was a really unique addition to our conference. In fact, as a result, I believe we now have three people who tried the VR with us and are now working directly with Billy Joe themselves to get the VR in their communities.

Of course, having this technology, we didn't want to only use it at a one-time event. We've been using it a lot, particularly with youth. We have found that it is an incredible tool. We take it with us into schools and to youth events for them to try. Every time we put that headset on a young person, we have a debrief afterward where they get to tell us or write out how they felt during that experience and what takeaways they had. We hear all kinds of amazing feedback. People have told us they felt scared, worried for Lisa, or anxious that her trafficker was going to walk in on them. We've had kids say they want to be more careful with their social media or even delete their Snapchat after experiencing Lisa's story because it opened their eyes to the potential for exploitation.

It has been a really effective tool-we've used it with hundreds of youths, and I think we're getting close to about 500 people that we have put the headsets on. Our organization has purchased five headsets, and I think our biggest challenge with the VR is actually that we need more of them. When we take it into a school, we want to put it on as many heads as possible, which means we're going to need to invest in more headsets soon. It's something that we are looking at doing because we have found so much value in it.

Not only has it been great for the professionals at our conference and for youth, but we also use it at community events. Anyone, from our average community members to legislators, law enforcement officers, and victim advocates, has tried it, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I cannot recommend it enough. It's a really unique tool, especially for youth, who are drawn to technology-driven experiences.

It's funny because VR can be a space that is really dangerous for youth, but reclaiming a piece of that technology for good and for our purposes is really cool. If you ever have questions, you can always send me a message, and I'd be happy to answer any questions about our experience with it. But we highly recommend it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MWmP9bMoa8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvLkqyVIv1c