In the US, the number one reason women don’t leave abusive homes is finances.

So, Santander Bank decided to act, by creating In Someone Else’s Shoes, a micro-lending and financial-literacy program designed to help women reclaim their financial freedom and have a path to a life free of domestic violence.

To raise awareness around the program, we built “The Home,” an immersive experience. Influenced by real survivor interviews, the house and the audio journey through it were designed to give the public a new perspective on what living in an abusive home is like.

An immersive experience was designed to spur empathy and understanding of what it feels like to be trapped in an abusive and violent home.

Although the house was located in one of the busiest spaces in NY, the experience was designed for visitors to move through it alone, with headsets and an audio guide blocking out surrounding noise. The audio guide was comprised of real stories from seven survivors, explaining how their story escalated over time and the role financial abuse played in making it difficult for them to leave.

Santander also partnered with two Domestic Violence non-profit organizations to create a financial literacy course and fund a micro-lending program to help remove the financial barriers most survivors face. These tools were made accessible through a micro-site designed for the program. This space provided additional information and education for those in need or who were interested.

The strategy was designed around the insight that most people believe leaving an abusive situation is as easy as choosing to walk away, while in reality, financial abuse can make it nearly impossible for a victim to safely exit or rebuild their lives.

The project first needed to change the public’s perception of domestic abuse. We offered visitors the opportunity to walk in the shoes of real domestic abuse survivors and hear their stories. Raising awareness of the difficulties to leave, the project was able to generate empathy and understanding.

A micro lending program, designed to quickly build victims’ credit history was also introduced and offered with the utmost privacy and security, offering those in need of help the help only a bank can provide.

We built a 1,200 square foot home that offered an immersive experience in the heart of New York City’s financial district. Inside, an audio journey comprised of survivors’ stories guided visitors through a 12-minute, fully choreographed tour of the house. Everything within – the interior design of the house, the love letters, photographs, and police evidence – was designed to disorient the public and give them a new perspective on what living in an abusive home is like, and why it’s not easy to escape.

Because the experience was so emotionally triggering, guests were guided to a waiting room and invited to speak with a counselor, who offered people help if they felt they were at risk or needed guidance to offer friends. After hearing that the women in the waiting room were the same women’s voices they’d been listening to, many people spent 10 more minutes with the counselor.

In 24 hours, 2,000 microlending loans were given to victims of domestic abuse. Seven victims of domestic abuse requested help to the counseling immediately after going through the house experience.

The event also harnessed 105M impressions, increasing traffic to Santander’s domestic abuse awareness website by 600%.