2023 Footsteps to Freedom

In person week long unique study tour experience of the Underground Railroad, one of America’s most significant freedom movements. The tour has hosted thousands of educators on immersive tours spanning two countries, four states, and over three thousand miles from Kentucky to Canada. The tour is a transformative learning opportunity built on a foundation of historical empathy that expedites professional and personal growth. The tour is led by experienced conductors and subject matter experts.

Learn & share stories of empathy and the lessons from history of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad and beyond. Too often the study of history occurs from the perspective of looking at dates, and manipulated facts that don’t allow for deep discussion and perspective. Footsteps to Freedom LLC is a project based, hands on program that utilizes an empathy pedagogy that focuses on constant interaction, attentive listening and deep dialogue. 

The collection allows participants to build and experience historical empathy by immersing them in a world where people were considered objects - a system built on chattel slavery. Visitors will learn that these injustices not only affected those who were actively oppressed, but that slavery's lingering impacts are ingrained in the systems and structures of the nation.

The foundation of the collection was built over a lifetime of collecting by Jerry Gore, whose lifelong goal was to expose the institution of slavery so that visitors to his hometown of Maysville, Kentucky and the surrounding communities could appreciate the daily perils experienced by enslaved people as well as the strength it required to fight for their freedom. The exhibit presents the unique artifacts collected by Gore in his effort to build historical empathy, a means of achieving a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of people from the past.

The Empathy Lab allows partners learn & share stories of empathy and the lessons from history of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad and beyond. Lab participants will meet with the descendants of these Americans, retrace footsteps through Augmented Reality and GIS Mapping and learn strategies from leaders in primary source, storytelling and historical empathy that they can us in lesson plans, leadership planning and equity goals. launching Immersive (AR) Augmented Reality experience that will bring, history, primary source artifacts and the heroic stories of of the Underground Railroad to life for education. Teachers and students will be challenged to ask themselves, In 100 years, what would you want history to say about the choices you made on todays issues. This bridge of history, primary sources and Augmented Reality (AR) is an exciting new way to experience papers, books and aritfacts that are over 200 years old. 

Post Baccalaureate (Master Level) Certificate (16-Credits Cambridge College) Program Outcomes: Upon completing this graduate certificate program students will be able to:

• Explain and analyze the Underground Railroad as a key historical event 
• Understand and evaluate the diversity of the human experience as influenced by religion, race, culture, and politics in US history 
• Apply historical processes that shape individuals and communities, drawing on detailed knowledge about the history of the area under study
• Think critically about the complexity of experiences found in the historical record of the United States during the Underground Railroad, and utilize Empathy to explore diversity as a critical component of history
• Distinguish between primary and secondary sources, and understand how each are used to make historical arguments
• Assess, use, and synthesize different kinds of evidence from a variety of historical sources to make a coherent argument about the past
• Effectively conduct research and write a coherent historical essay or research paper that articulates a clear argument, effectively uses interprets multiple forms of evidence, identifies arguments in secondary historical texts, and uses appropriate citations
• Understand the difference between opinions and substantiated scholarly claims
• Produce new works to be used within the classroom setting
• Utilize storytelling in a classroom setting

https://www.cambridgecollege.edu/degree/empathy-certificate

Public lecture series and small group private showings (Presentation examples)

• Building empathy in Leadership
• What is your spark? (Historical Empathy in Education)
• Pre-School to PhD, How we as parents did it for free.
• Stories of the Underground Railroad
• What's in a Primary Source
• The Power of the history and impact of HBCUs
• Choosing to be on the Right Side or Wrong Side of History 
• Custom presentation to fit your organizations needs