The project
In 2018 The Children’s Society began a pilot of VR with young people who use Pause, its mental health drop-in centre in Birmingham. Pause practitioners teach young people coping techniques, and the idea was to let them practise those techniques ‘in’ the situations that make them anxious, with a practitioner there to guide them.
A poll of more than a hundred young people at Pause found that school environments were the most triggering, and young people storyboarded three situations: reading aloud in class, taking an exam under time pressure, and walking through busy corridors.
What we did
Ben Huss was technical lead and a co-producer, working with The Fred Company. The scenarios were filmed as 360 scenes in a local school, with young people taking part, and developed into an interactive app in which the viewer makes choices, such as whether to read aloud in class. Coping cards inside the experience let young people practise relaxation techniques.
What happened next
At the first Vodafone Techstarter awards, in February 2019, The Children’s Society’s Reality Check was one of four winners in the not-for-profit category, and one of two winners of the Champion’s award, voted for by Vodafone employees.
Credits
- For
- The Children’s Society
- Made with
- The Fred Company (Rosie Collins)
- Technical lead and co-producer
- Ben Huss