Client Story

Boys & Girls Clubs of America wanted to look at the out-of-school-time needs of youth ages 5-18 in Indiana and how well Indiana Clubs are fulfilling those needs. In Indiana, 68% of youth between these ages are in need of care because all parents are in the workforce which tells us there are numerous opportunities for Clubs across the state.

This project had three major phases: completing a needs assessment, facilitating site assessments, and creating a 5-year strategic plan.

First, our team tackled the needs assessment report. This looked at qualitative and quantitative data on all Indiana youth. Through this process, we uncovered many highlights and takeaways regarding Indiana youth:

• There are 1.1 million youth ages 6-17
• 1 in 5 children is in poverty
• 1 in 10 of Indiana’s teens and young adults ages 16-24 are neither working nor in school
• 61% of high school graduates enroll in college
• 48.5% of Indiana adults have a postsecondary credential or degree
• 1 in 5 high school students has seriously contemplated attempting suicide

After gathering this data, we assessed other out-of-school-time options across the state to help identify trends, gaps, and opportunities for Indiana Clubs. We then created a comprehensive report and an interactive dashboard to make the data available for further local club-level analysis. Clubs can filter the data by county and zip code. They can also see how their communities and Clubs compare to others.

The second phase of this project included facilitating site assessments of all 31 Indiana Clubs. Our team developed data tools such as surveys, focus group questions, key informant interview questions, and a collection process to quickly gather and organize feedback. We then split up the Clubs and visited all 31. We toured the facilities and interviewed leaders and key stakeholders. We created a summary report and data dashboard from this information to highlight the key findings.

We created a 5-year strategic implementation plan for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. We benchmarked out-of-school-time strategies. As part of the strategic planning retreat, we reached a consensus on the 5-year plan. As a result, the local clubs were able to develop a visually appealing strategic plan report that they could easily use. Finally, we collaborated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America team to best communicate the project results to local Clubs and other relevant stakeholders.