BROKE: A New Immersive Experience Exploring UK Poverty Launches This Season
For over a decade, we’ve been creating immersive experiences that serve to help people step into stories beyond their own — sparking understanding, conversation and change.
Now, as part of our 10-year anniversary (last year), we’re launching something new.
Introducing BROKE — a pilot immersive experience exploring poverty in the UK today.
Why BROKE?
Over the past ten years, thousands of people have stepped inside our immersive experiences on:
Global poverty through The Poverty Trap
Displacement and migration through Desperate Journeys
Climate justice through The High Life
Each experience began with a simple belief:
Understanding grows when we move beyond information and into perspective.
BROKE builds on that foundation — turning our focus closer to home on poverty in the UK. A reality for many in our classrooms, meeting rooms, corridors, and people we pass on the street.
What Is BROKE?
BROKE is a new immersive, interactive piece designed to explore the social and economic realities of living with limited financial security in the UK.
As a pilot project, it represents the first step in what we hope will grow into a powerful and widely used learning tool — much like our other immersive experiences have over time.
Visitors will encounter decision points, pressures and everyday scenarios inspired by real experiences. The aim is not to tell people what to think, but to create space for reflection and conversation.
We’re testing.
We’re learning.
We’re inviting people into the process.
A 10-Year Anniversary Project
Launching BROKE is coming from our 10th anniversary year last year where we spent time sitting and listening to people, groups and organisations share with us their perspectives on poverty. Sharing these feel significant for our day.
Just over ten years ago, we set out to change how people engage with issues of justice and inequality — not through lectures alone, but through lived perspective.
BROKE is part of that continuing journey.
It’s about asking:
What does empathy look like here?
In our communities?
In our towns and cities?
And how can immersive storytelling help us understand better?
Help Shape Its Future
Because BROKE is in its pilot phase, early visitors are not just participants — they are collaborators.
Your feedback will help shape how this experience evolves, grows and reaches more people in the years to come.
Just as The Poverty Trap, Desperate Journeys, and The High Life developed and expanded over time, we hope BROKE will do the same — with your insight helping guide that journey.
Be Part of the Launch
We’re now opening bookings for our launch events and pilot sessions.
Whether you’re an educator, community group, business leader or individual wanting to engage more deeply with the realities of UK poverty, we invite you to join us.
🎟 Booking is now open.
👉 Reserve your place here:
https://www.empathyaction.org/events
Be Part of the Story
For this piece, we’re also inviting people at its inception to be part of the story going forward and have your name written in it’s foundations. We’re crowdfunding this piece, exclusively, to the pilot audience and ‘early adopter’… we believe that community is part of the solution and we want it to be written into BROKE. If you would like to contribute - which we would love you to do - here’s the link (it will only be live until Easter)
BROKE is our next step as a small charity.
We’d love you to take it with us.
Ben Solanky, Co-founder, Director Empathy Action
