aloeVR: Healing VR Experiences

Our Mission: We are raising funding for aloeVR, an organization that supports K-12 students' mental health through mindfulness-building virtual reality experiences.

My Story: Heyo! I am Vedant, the founder of aloeVR. My parents immigrated from India and I have always looked to honor my family and heritage. I have grown passionate about ancient Indian mindfulness practices (like yoga or meditation). These practices have supported me in healing from my own mental health challenges. Now, having worked for five years at a Title I school in an East Las Vegas community struggling with poverty, I have learned from the community that there is a clear need for rehabilitative student mental health supports. So I combined my passion for mindfulness with the immersive, healing technology of VR with the hopes of sparking radical change.

Our Impact: So far we have impacted over 600 kids at schools across the southwest. 85% of our users feel more prepared to handle future situations that challenge how they feel. 92% had positive growth in well-being. Finally, 94% had fun with the program!

Local News Coverage for aloeVR: https://tinyurl.com/3kmrs92h

How It Works: Students can access the healing VR experiences in a classroom for a mental health break, in a counselor's office for a more trauma-informed 1 on 1 environment, or in a standalone VR room. In the game itself, students travel through 4 different altitudes of Peru, and learn research-based social-emotional-learning skills from different animal peace guides. For example, a student could go to the Amazon Rainforest and learn from the jaguar research-based lessons on "Anger and Acceptance," or perhaps to Machu Picchu to learn with Grecia about "Health Body and Balance."

Where Will Funding Go? For every $100, we can positively and profoundly impact 10 more students in need of mental health resources. More specifically, funding will be used to: 1) make our VR experiences even more interactive and suitable for students of disadvantage, 2) acquire more VR headsets for students of need, and 3) provide more equitable prices for schools of disadvantage.

Website: aloevr.com

Instagram: @aloe_vedant