Virtual Reality Training Packages Defined by Radical Empathy
To be sure people get the attention they need when they need assistance at events, we recommend one assistant per every 5 headsets in use.
Licensees are encouraged to use the training software in any way they wish. Here are a few real-world use cases from our licensees. (More info here.)
- Community-based in-person human trafficking prevention training.
- Community awareness at outreach events.
- Sharing the VR experience with in-person visitors to their physical locations.
- Individual donor cultivation. You get to have a very personal interaction with a donor when they use this experience.
- Fundraising galas. Donors get a hands-on experience at the gala itself. I have personally supported almost a dozen events.
- Legislative and City Leadership education. Here's the mayor of Wichita Falls, TX, after a quick VR experience.
- Middle and high school human trafficking prevention training (in-school and after school).
- Middle school students ask their teacher to have Parents' Nights where they teach parents about human trafficking and make their parents use the VR application.
- Lisa's story from TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story was used as a Case Study for every attendee of the Greater Rockies Immersive Training Conference (GRIT). Each session included a way to relate to Lisa's situation. Here's a video explanation.
- Uprising bought physical versions of the virtual items in the VR experience to bring the whole experience to life. They place them on site at events with Info Cards they created to go along with the items, so there is extra story and learning outside the headsets.
- Medical students at University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) use it alongside in-class training, so students understand the emotional manipulation behind trafficking.
- UNTHSC studied the effectiveness of how our Virtual Reality training can change real-world behavior and improve long-term retention of learning objectives. Initial results were amazing, but research remains to be completed.
- Austin area high school uses the VR application's source code and art in job training classes.
- An alternative school plans to use it to begin small group trainings that lead to small group discussions with school counselors. This has happened organically previously, so I can't wait to see how it's done therapeutically.
- Adolescent addiction specialist from the Austin area uses it in his practice to give concrete examples of how children can be manipulated and to open the door to talking about many other difficult topics related to the experience: divorce, abandonment, sextortion, social media use, abuse, rape, violence, pregnancy, etc.
5 Headset Package (click to view on Amazon)
This package lets you deliver rigorous, interactive, efficient, and effective human trafficking prevention education delivered in virtual reality to multiple learners. One headset (with these upgrades) serves four people per hour.
With 5 sets, you will directly impact 20 people per hour with a lifechanging, interactive experience they will never forget.
25 Headset Package (click to view on Amazon)
This package lets you deliver rigorous, interactive, efficient, and effective human trafficking prevention education delivered in virtual reality to multiple learners. One headset (with these upgrades) serves four people per hour.
With 25 sets, you will directly impact 100 people per hour with a lifechanging, interactive experience they will never forget.
This package of 25 headsets can train an entire 800 person middle or high school in a single day.
Yes, original, used Quest 1 (Q1) headsets are also an option
VR headsets can be cost-prohibitive, no doubt about it. Luckily, the universe has conspired to put us in a position to take advantage of a thriving secondhand market. The first Quest headsets (Q1) and controllers are now only available used. The Amazon lists above all reference new Quest 2 (Q2) headsets.
Almost every VR application requires the use of hand controllers; ours doesn't. So when a Q1 owner breaks their controllers, they have to consider buying new ones or sell their Q1. Controller-free headsets are approximately $75 on eBay at the time of this writing. EXAMPLE eBay SEARCH HERE.
To “set up” a Q1, you must have 2 controllers, but once your headset is set up, you will not need a controller any longer to use our application.
We recommend you purchase a used Q1 with 2 controllers and then as many extra headsets without controllers as you like. We believe you can get 5 working headsets for your events for around $5-600. Incredibly reasonable given that only ONE full VR headset setup in 2018 was $2500!
YOU need to make the purchase directly, because we cannot warrant the devices.
If you want to do this the easiest way for yourself, you can purchase the headsets and ship them to us. We'll set them up and get them to you.
Just email [email protected] and we'll work something out.
Headphones add to the immersion
Although Quest VR headsets have internal speakers that play the story's audio out loud, to make the best impact, you want to provide your trainees the best audio experience.
You want users to forget they are in a training area.
That means headphones! We have tested quite a few and have partnered with Direct Sound to create a custom logoed set.
Here's the use case we identified: we're in a huge expo hall surrounded by people with various sized heads and hairstyles, that need to have a seamless experience being put into our VR application, and putting on the headsets and headphones needs to happen quickly between each visitor. Our headphones need to be very sturdy, because they are being used by the general public, they need to cover a trainee's ears completely to block out room noise, and they need to easily expand to fit over the large VR headsets. Bonus points for them being easy to package and keep track of cables. More bonus points for short wires.
Here are the criteria we used to decide upon these headphones.
- Hygiene. You definitely don't want to share ear buds, so ear cups that cover the whole ear are a much better design. These are covered with plastic that can be easily wiped down with alcohol.
- Immersion level. The tightness of the “seal” around the ear blocks out a great deal of the sound from the room. The head strap is extremely sturdy and keeps the pressure on.
- Adjustability. How easily can you make the headphones enormous or small, while you are helping people try on the headset? Extending and retracting the strap is easy to do on the fly, and they stay in place at the desired size well.
You can, obviously, use any headphones you like! We use these ourselves and believe in them. We think Direct Sound is pretty dang cool for making this happen, too.
Click this link to purchase Radical Empathy logoed black EX29 Plus Extreme Isolation headphones and receive a free storage / carry bag and use the coupon code REEFCARES2023 for 20% discount.
About Radical Empathy Education Foundation
Radical Empathy Education Foundation (REEF) is an Austin-based nonprofit dedicated to ending human trafficking in one generation. To capture the attention of young adults, they use virtual reality experiences that include fully interactive, computer generated environments married with narrative, user-directed stories. To support REEF's work, please visit https://www.reefcares.org/
About ONE GENERATION EDUCATION SYSTEM™
Radical Empathy Education Foundation (REEF) is dedicated to ending human trafficking in one generation. Our One Generation Education System™ utilizes cutting edge virtual reality (VR) technology that helps you make an empathetic connection to victims of the crime and understand how anyone could be tricked into being a victim. It also includes the interactive online course, Human Trafficking Essentials, that can be completed anytime in your web browser.
Students experience our interactive VR application, TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story, and collect clues that tell a narrative story of how this happened to a young girl, from her perspective. The VR experience creates empathy for victims, making students more interested in the online course. It has been designed, maintained, and improved with advice from hundreds of subject matter experts and feedback from thousands of users.
Human Trafficking Essentials is based upon 15 years of Dr. David Deeds' teaching experience. He taught these materials for 15 years in his criminal justice classes at College of DuPage and Governors State University.