Our First Grant: Texas Bar Foundation Supports Through Their Eyes

I’m excited to share a first for Room To Care: we’ve been awarded an $11,100 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation to support Through Their Eyes.

If you’ve followed our updates, you know we’ve been filming interviews with survivors who have chosen to share their stories. We’ve also begun the careful work of editing those conversations into training. That part takes time, and our aging equipment has made it slower than it should be.

This grant gives us equipment and software to move that work forward. It helps us turn recorded interviews into training that gives people a better understanding of trafficking, what they might notice in their own work, and how to respond with care.

We’re based in Texas, and we intend to submit the completed hospitality training through the Texas Attorney General’s approval process. But our plans for Through Their Eyes reach beyond Texas. We’re building toward a national rollout, with training that can be adapted to the needs and requirements of each state and the people working there.

That need already exists across the country. States with hotel or motel trafficking training requirements include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The rules differ by state and by job. Pennsylvania has also adopted a lodging training requirement that takes effect in July 2027.

Law enforcement needs this education, too. In a 2022 national census of state and local law enforcement academies, 86.7% reported offering human trafficking instruction during basic training. Among academies that offered it, the average was five hours. That figure describes basic academy instruction, not all the training an officer may receive later. It reminds me why we want Through Their Eyes to offer something people can carry into the decisions they make on the job.

Receiving our first grant means a great deal to me. I’m grateful that the Texas Bar Foundation sees value in the work we’re building and trusts us to carry it forward. I hope this is also the beginning of more opportunities: more grants, more partners, and more donors who want to help bring Through Their Eyes to life. There is still work ahead, and this support helps us take a real step toward it.

If you’ve been thinking about giving, there’s still time to make a gift before the end of 2026. Room To Care is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and donations may be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. You can donate here. Every gift helps us keep building this program with the care the stories—and the people sharing them—deserve.

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Thank you to the Texas Bar Foundation, and thank you to everyone who has helped Room To Care reach this point. I’m excited to show you what comes next.

Official press release

View the official release on Business Wire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Scott Burch, Founder and Executive Director, Room To Care, Inc.info@roomtocare.com | 817-203-4311

Texas Bar Foundation Awards $11,100 Grant to Room To Care for Survivor-Informed Human Trafficking Training

Funding gives Through Their Eyes the editing capacity to bring its training to Texas hospitality, healthcare, and law enforcement workers

EULESS, Texas, October 30, 2026 - Room To Care, Inc., a Euless-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has received an $11,100 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation. The one-year grant, which began October 16, 2026, supports Through Their Eyes Trafficking Awareness Editing Capacity, providing equipment and software so survivor-informed human trafficking training can reach Texas hospitality, healthcare, and law enforcement workers.

Through Their Eyes is Room To Care’s flagship educational program, being produced to documentary film standards. The program is built around survivors who have chosen to share their stories on camera. Filming continues, and post-production has begun on recorded interviews. Aging equipment has slowed that work considerably. This grant provides the editing tools needed to turn those interviews into training for frontline workers.

“Difficult topics like human trafficking deserve to be taught with empathy, both for the survivors who share their experiences and for the people learning from them,” said Scott Burch, Founder and Executive Director of Room To Care. “Many people carry a picture of what trafficking looks like that keeps them from recognizing it at a hotel front desk, in an exam room, or on a call. We believe hearing directly from survivors can change that picture, and change what people notice. The Texas Bar Foundation’s support gives us the tools to tell those stories well, and we’re grateful for their trust.”

Existing trafficking training often relies on animation, slide-and-voiceover formats, or scripted dramatizations. Through Their Eyes is being built around real voices instead, with the goal of training that stays with the people who watch it.

About the Texas Bar Foundation
Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $32 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation’s largest charitably-funded bar foundation.

About Room To Care
Room To Care, Inc. is a nonprofit based in Euless, Texas. It takes on human issues including exploitation, inequality, and relationships through documentary filmmaking and educational storytelling. Human trafficking awareness is its first program area. Learn more at roomtocare.com.