Customer Story
Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs Embraces VR Career Exploration
At 31 Boys & Girls Club locations across Indiana, members are immersing themselves in a variety of occupations through virtual reality (VR) career exploration simulations from Transfr.
Customer Story
Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs Embraces VR Career Exploration
At 31 Boys & Girls Club locations across Indiana, members are immersing themselves in a variety of occupations through virtual reality (VR) career exploration simulations from Transfr.
Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs Embraces VR Career Exploration
At 31 Boys & Girls Club locations across Indiana, members are immersing themselves in a variety of occupations through virtual reality (VR) career exploration simulations from Transfr.
Quick Stats
Date started:
May 2022
Target demographics:
K12-aged children, general community (all ages)
Number served:
Career Exploration: 3,067 unique users
Virtual Training Facility: 518 unique users
Main use case(s):
Career exploration, some skills training
Number served:
Career Exploration: 3,067 unique users
Virtual Training Facility: 518 unique users
Main use case(s):
Career exploration, some skills training
Executive Summary
In addition to the types of in-person activities that have made Boys & Girls Clubs central to the lives of countless communities, their young members can sample work experiences in automotive, manufacturing, electrical work, and a variety of other fields. Initially deploying at 10 clubs in May of 2022, the Indiana Alliance of Boys&Girls Clubs expanded to 31 clubs in November 2022. Almost 2,500 members have completed nearly 4,500 career exploration and skills training simulations. Reactions from members and staff are positive and excitement is high!
Inspiring members with VR career exploration
For many young people in the state of Indiana, time spent at their local Boys & Girls Club is incredibly formative. Civic engagement, fun activities, building friendships, and career exploration are all time-honored parts of what makes Boys & Girls Clubs so important to so many communities and the children and parents in them.
At 31 clubs across Indiana, members are immersing themselves in a variety of occupations through VR career exploration simulations from Transfr. In addition to in-person activities at these sites, members can sample work experiences in automotive, manufacturing, electrical work, and a variety of other fields using state-of-the-art headsets.
“We’re focused on education and career development,” says Lana Taylor, Executive Director for the Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs. “With this expansion into career development, we’re finding that kids aren’t really interested in just having a guest speaker come in. We were looking for something more engaging. They really are engaged by Transfr.”
Initially, 10 clubs rolled out Transfr in May of 2022. The Alliance built on early successes by expanding to 31 in November 2022. Since debuting Transfr, almost 2,500 members have completed nearly 4,500 simulations. Exploring careers via VR technology is extremely engaging for school-aged youth, Lana explains:
“The kids are showing more interest in different jobs. I think that’s what really makes Transfr attractive: It’s something that the kids could relate to.
Overcoming challenges, building excitement with VR career exploration
The Indiana Alliance’s success with Transfr is a testament to the hard work of the teams at each site. Every community is different, and every Boys & Girls Club location tailors its program to suit the unique needs of its members, their families, and the overall area. Initially, however, there was a bit of skepticism about deploying VR career exploration:
“The first thing that came to my mind when I saw Transfr was ‘Oh boy… another game, another toy…’ We’ve had some issues over the years with new ideas where everybody gets really excited and then it kind of fizzles out,” Lana explains. “With Transfr, I thought ‘This is one idea I don’t want to fizzle out!”
Getting buy-in from the many local clubs would be central to changing young lives, so Lana brought stakeholders from different locations together to try out the new technology.
“I wanted to get everybody on board and so we brought Transfr in to do a couple of demo sessions,” Lana says. “The first group to try out the VR was a smaller group of clubs. After the demo, I immediately started getting emails — I mean, even while we were all still sitting there in the room, I was getting emails saying ‘Yes! We want to do this!’”
Evansville and Rush County embrace VR career exploration
Two clubs that were part of the May 2022 Transfr rollout were Evansville and Rush County. Since that deployment, the Boys & Girls Club of Evansville has reached 137 members with VR experiences; completing 149 simulations. “Discovery” has been the recurring theme of members’ time with Transfr:
“Overall, throughout the year, we’ve been hearing “I didn’t know these careers existed.’ over and over from members.” says Amy Hahn, Director of Programs for Boys & Girls Club of Evansville. “Members say ‘I had no idea… I didn’t know I’d like cooking. I didn’t know I’d like repairing a plane. I didn’t know you could even do this kind of stuff.’”
Immersive career exploration simulations offer unique opportunities and benefits for reaching people in any location with experiences that may be expensive or impossible to replicate where they are. That kind of opportunity can be life-changing for a young person unsure of what to do for a career.
“We’ve helped kids and parents think differently in terms of career plans.” says Lana. “We’re hearing members say ‘I want to be a line worker! I want to be a pilot! I want to work in manufacturing technology!’”
VR can be a powerful tool for clubs of all sizes and locations. Rush County is a smaller, more rural part of Indiana, but the Boys & Girls Club of Rush County is leading the way when it comes to career exploration and job readiness, and technology like Transfr is a big part of making that happen. Since deploying Transf, the club has seen 382 users who’ve completed 256 sims in both VR career exploration and Transfr’s VR skills training offering, the Virtual Training Facility.
“Coming from a rural setting, we’re usually coming from behind,” explains Jon York, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Rush County. “We want to make sure that our kids get a head start and for that we need innovation. That’s what I see in Transfr: It’s an innovative way to show our youth and young adults an array of careers.”
The team at Boys & Girls Club of Rush County isn’t just providing VR career exploration experiences, they’re providing hope and a different version of the future for the young people of the county, Jon shares:
“We want members to see that they can provide for a family with skills and jobs they can get right here. It only takes one generation to break the generational poverty cycle. We want our youth to be the generation that breaks the cycle.”
A brighter future for Indiana
Countless adults across the country have the Boys & Girls Club to thank for cherished childhood memories and a strong start in life that helped them reach their full potential. For 20+ Boys&Girls Clubs in Indiana, VR career exploration with Transfr is now part of their stories.
Giving students in all areas — inner cities, rural settings, or anywhere else — access to world-class career exploration experiences and skills training is one of the most powerful things that VR has to offer. In Indiana, this technology is also helping bridge gaps and change minds for a wide array of people:
“One of the best things about Transfr is the ability to reach a lot of people across age ranges,” Ann reports. “That’s probably been probably the most amazing thing to me: Some adults come in a little skeptical, but then they put it on and then they’re like, all for it. They’re amazed what you can do with it.”
With increased opportunities and increased opportunities for exploration, thanks to the efforts of the Indiana Boys & Girls Clubs (equipped with Transfr), the future is brighter and full of possibilities.
