AFSEE Incubation Labs: Using Virtual Reality to Empower Youth to Address Gender-Based Violence

As Hurricane Beryl launched its onslaught on the Caribbean in early July 2024, four AFSEE Fellows met in Trinidad and Tobago, a vibrant twin-island republic shaped by a history of conquest, colonisation, and waves of immigration, where colonial legacies have cast a long shadow, as the country struggles with a culture of violence, often typified by an overwhelmingly high rate of violent crime driven by gang violence and the drug trade. Patriarchal attitudes further reinforce violence - ensnaring men and boys in a vicious cycle, whether as perpetrators, victims or passive bystanders.

Despite leading the way on domestic violence legislation in the Caribbean, gender-based violence (GBV) remains pervasive. It is estimated that 44% of ever-partnered women experience gender-based violence in Trinidad and Tobago. This crisis does not go unnoticed, however, as several NGOs implement prevention programmes, research projects, and advocacy strategies and provide psychosocial, medical, and legal services to victims, survivors and, in some cases, perpetrators. In this context, as part of the AFSEE Incubation Labs – initiative, we aimed to contribute meaningfully to Trinidad and Tobago’s violence prevention efforts, exploring Virtual Reality (VR) as a tool to promote gender-equitable behaviours among adolescents.

A Trajectory of Curiosity

Stage 1 of the Incubation Labs – initiative set us on a trajectory of curiosity, drawing from insights gathered from a virtual roundtable we organised with experts in VR, GBV prevention, pedagogy, and youth development. Key insights from the roundtable included:

1. Trauma-informed design: Incorporating a multi-disciplinary team, including psychologists, to prioritise participant safety.
2. Structured engagement: Using onboarding and offboarding strategies to prepare participants and ensure they return to a safe mental state after the experience.
3. Clear measurement goals: Defining what metrics we want to measure (e.g. knowledge, attitudes, behaviours) and how.
4. Integrated intervention: Embedding VR within a broader behaviour change initiative rather than using it as a standalone solution.
5. Inclusive and accessible design: Considering the digital context, access, affordability, and cultural relevance and involving beneficiaries in co-creation to shift power dynamics.

Designing a workshop to address gender-based violence

For Stage 2, we designed a ‘Discover, Demystify, Design’- workshop to empower young people to address GBV using VR. Our objectives were that participants would explore VR technology and deepen their understanding of the prevalence of GBV in Trinidad and Tobago; experience immersive VR and learn about the tech; and co-create culturally relevant stories adaptable to VR.

To plan the workshop, we collaborated with Missing 10 Hours (M10H), a narrative VR venture with extensive experience designing and implementing immersive technology for sexual violence prevention. Their intervention, which addresses drug-facilitated sexual assault, immerses users in a nighttime party scene and allows them to assume the role of the bystander, influencing the storyline's trajectory. Fanni Fazakas prepared our team by facilitating a train-the-trainer workshop covering topics such as onboarding and offboarding, safety protocols, screening and feedback mechanisms to ensure that we had a grasp of the ethical, technical and psychological requirements of the project. Dingole Immersive Design Studio, a locally-based augmented reality studio provided insights on best practices within the local context that we should consider in designing and delivering our workshop sessions. The Heroes Foundation, a youth development organisation, guided us in understanding local youth culture, what pedagogic strategies work and how GBV affects them. Two weeks before arrival, we also met virtually with the youth participants to set expectations.

Discover, Demystify, Design

The first day of the workshop was all about discovering, introducing VR technology to the young people. Following engaging connection activities led by Jack, Myriam introduced the youth participants to the concept of extended reality (XR) - an umbrella term encapsulating Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and everything in between. By outlining the different types of VR, she primed participants for an immersive experience of her 360 film ‘GAWI’. Craig then led a session on GBV, explaining root causes, the bystander effect, and consent, and Kevin guided us through a “network of care” activity emphasising the agency that we all have to take actions to care for ourselves, for one another, and ultimately to prevent GBV. We had some brilliant discussions about young people's experiences and perceptions of GBV in Trinidad and Tobago and ended the day by setting a goal that the group would try to make their own 360 films about the topic.

The second day of the workshop was dedicated to demystifying VR, challenging participants’ perceptions that the technology is an unreachable luxury. In the morning, they entered the world of Missing 10 Hours. This was a gamified experience, and they had the ability to make choices and determine the outcome of the story. It was interesting to hear during the debrief that the experience felt real, intense, and difficult to detach from. Two afternoon sessions followed which were facilitated by the Dingole team and Tishanna Williams, a local theatre practitioner. The young people got hands-on experience in the technical side of VR production, learning about 360 filming and the different types of cameras, equipment, and software used to put it together. Tishanna helped the participants develop stories from a framework of ‘choices’ challenging them to reflect on why we make the choices we do and the courage involved in making difficult choices, like the ones they were confronted with earlier that day. The afternoon was spent building film sets and rehearsing scenes together, and at the end of the day, young people with little or no experience with VR had been introduced to spatial storytelling and VR experiences, and successfully created their own 360 films.

The final day of the workshop offered us the opportunity to reflect on the past two days and begin a conversation on how we could design and apply our learnings in the work to address GBV. Emotions ran high as participants watched their very own 360 films, marvelling at what they had achieved in such a short time.

Insights and next steps

As the hurricane continued to travel up the Caribbean, we emerged with valuable insights:

1. Virtual reality can complement human interaction by stimulating conversations and prompting empathy.
2. Co-creation resonates with young people when they are given the opportunities and mentorship to shape solutions relevant to their lives.
3. Local organisations have an appetite for innovation and are eager to access resources and expertise to test and scale new approaches.

This phase of our incubation lab closed with a vision for the future - supporting sustainable VR capacities within local organisations, enhancing the social impact of digital storytelling, and ensuring continued engagement with youth on gender equity through VR in Trinidad and Tobago to empower young people as advocates for change in their communities. 

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.