About Radical Empathy Education Foundation
We teach children, parents, grandparents and the professionals who protect them how to recognize when they’re being tricked.
Abuse rarely starts with violence. It starts with attention, gifts, secrets and a slow pull away from everyone who could help. By the time it looks like abuse, the person inside it often can’t see the way out. Our work teaches people to spot the tactics early, while there’s still time to act.
What we do
TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story is a 15 to 25 minute immersive experience. Learners step into the story of Lisa, a teenager who was groomed and trafficked, and investigate it themselves: they notice the red flags, feel the pressure, and come out understanding why people don’t “just leave.” TRAPPED teaches 60 Key Lessons. More than 20,000 people in 9 states have trained with it, through 14 licensees, including schools, universities, police departments and anti-trafficking organizations.
Beyond the Red Flags: A Field Guide to Emotional Manipulation from People and AI puts the same Key Lessons in your hands, along with the Lexicon: plain-language definitions of the tactics people use to harm others. Both are drawn from what 109 organizations and authors in the field actually teach. The Field Guide is free to download and print, forever. Get the free Field Guide
Who we serve
Schools and counselors, law enforcement, healthcare and social service teams, faith and community groups, and families.
How licensing supports our mission
Organizations license TRAPPED through reefcares.org. License fees and donations fund the foundation’s abuse prevention programs: bringing TRAPPED to schools and community events, keeping the Field Guide free, and growing the Key Lessons and Lexicon. When an organization wants TRAPPED but can’t fund it, we work with donors and grants to make it happen.
Our story
Radical Empathy Education Foundation was founded in 2016 and incorporated in 2017 by Billy Joe Cain and Jacqueline Cain. Billy Joe brought decades in the video game industry, and more than ten years of training alongside the FBI, Homeland Security, gang units and similar agencies, to one question: how do you teach people to see manipulation before it’s too late?
TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story is developed by differentOctober and licensed to Radical Empathy Education Foundation.
Nonprofit information
Radical Empathy Education Foundation, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit. EIN 82-0704070. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
Mailing address: 2311 Rogge Ln, Austin, TX 78723
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