The Agape Project
- Lucy Kilbane
- Dec 23, 2020
- 2 min read

The Agape Project is a semester long, self-driven assignment that grants students the opportunity to attempt to solve a social justice issue in the world today. When assigned this project in my Junior Theology class last spring, I immediately knew I wanted to pursue human trafficking in some way. After watching a chilling documentary on this issue, I realized that I wanted to explore the human trafficking that goes untested in healthcare, especially in hospitals. For my Agape project, I created a pull-tab system to be implemented into bathrooms in hospitals, particularly emergency room bathrooms, for victims to take if they would prefer to speak with a healthcare provider alone if they do not feel safe. This gives patients the opportunity to communicate with those who can help without being pressured or silenced by their perpetrator.
Pre-coronavirus, my collaborator, Dr. Michele Reali-Sorrell, and I were planning to present this project to the executive officers and a panel of nurses, doctors, and staff at The Cleveland Clinic in order to detail our plan of action for its development. However, with the challenges COVID-19 presented, we had to adapt to the ever changing nature of the project. Instead of the presentation and in-person meetings with the design team at the Clinic, we reverted to numerous phone calls and Zoom meetings to complete this project. In addition to the pull-tab sign, nurses and hospital staff had to undergo new training regarding what to do if they were to receive a tab, what questions to ask the victim, and who to alert if this situation were to occur. After months of conferring, planning, and researching, this pull-tab system and associated training is being used in the Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Family Health Center location. My Agape experiment, a seemingly normal school project, transformed into a tool to be used to potentially save lives.
Image 1: My first draft of the pull-tab poster

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