What if you could practice coming home?

Immersive virtual reality that lets formerly incarcerated adults rehearse everyday life — grocery shopping, banking, public transit — before they face it for real.

VR prototype in active development
Michigan Dept. of Corrections — pilot conversations underway

NCS community member experiencing VR headset

Who we are

Already inside. Already outside. The VR connects both.

NCS runs programming on both sides of the gate — inside Michigan correctional facilities and in the community through the Innovation Hub. The VR platform is the missing link that connects those two data streams into a longitudinal picture of each person's journey.

No other organization in the country has this infrastructure. The closed loop is already built. The VR completes it.

Active DOC relationshipMichigan MDOC

Facilities in scope26 facilities

Inside reach to date2,000+ individuals

States showing interest3+ and growing

Already inside. NCS has been running programming inside Michigan correctional facilities for four years across multiple security levels — building relationships, trust, and data. The VR platform deploys into that existing foundation.

5th year

Platform architecture

Environment → Scenario → Module

A three-tier curriculum structure built for personalized skill progression — not a one-size experience.

01 · Environment

The space

Built once. Reused across every scenario within it.

Grocery store

Public transit

Bank

Parole office

02 · Scenario

The situation

Specific real-world situations layered into each environment.

First time shopping alone

Shopping on $50 budget

Handling a problem at checkout

Disclosure conversation

03 · Module

The skill

Discrete, measurable skills with pre/post confidence scoring.

Using a smartphone

Self-checkout kiosk

Contactless payment

Budget decisions

University of Pittsburgh — CS 1980 Capstone

Build something that ships.

We're looking for a team of 3–5 students to build the next environments and scenarios as an industry partner capstone. Your code gets deployed inside Michigan correctional facilities. Real users. Measurable outcomes.

Everything we build has real-world consequences. A person puts this headset on six weeks before they go home. What they practice in here affects what happens out there.

Reach out to Pankaj Chaudhary — Next Chapters Solutions

New VR environmentPublic transit, banking, or DMV — built in Unity for Meta Quest using OpenXR

First scenario within that environmentCo-designed with NCS's lived-experience community

Real user testingAccess to NCS community hub participants for feedback

Faculty sponsorProf. Dmitriy Babichenko — Dept. of Informatics and Networked Systems