COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Aug. 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As schools nationwide kick off the academic year, Junior Achievement (JA) locations across the country prepare to engage volunteers to deliver JA's experiential programs to local students with a new, national volunteer engagement campaign. The "JA Heroes" campaign includes public service announcements and online and print advertisements.
Junior Achievement programs currently reach more than 4.5 million kindergarten through high school students each year in the U.S., focusing on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness. Demand for JA programs by local schools typically outpaces the number of volunteers available to deliver them. As a result, Junior Achievement USA created the "JA Heroes" campaign to help raise awareness of the need for caring adults in local communities to volunteer for JA. Program materials and training are provided by JA, and the time commitment is flexible, as easy as one hour a week over five weeks.
Jack E. Kosakowski, president and chief executive officer of Junior Achievement USA, said, "Junior Achievement volunteers are JA's superheroes. These dedicated men and women care about the future of our young people enough to give of their time and talents. We want to get the word out to the communities we serve about how enriching the JA experience is for students and volunteers alike, to engage with more potential volunteers to expand local students' access to JA's life-changing programs."
Junior Achievement programs give young people the opportunity to learn and apply important life skills such as budgeting, conducting a successful job search, and how to be entrepreneurial. Typically, JA volunteers visit classrooms to deliver programs during the school day, but many JA Areas also have JA Capstone facilities, such as JA BizTown or JA Finance Park. At these locations, elementary or middle school students visit for an immersive day-long experience facilitated by JA volunteers, after the students have had preparatory classroom lessons delivered by their teacher.
At JA Capstone locations, students run a simulated city—JA BizTown—and are assigned jobs, and get to pay bills and run businesses. At JA Finance Park, students are assigned a fictional life scenario with job, income and family situation, and must create and balance a budget. JA's classroom programs are delivered over the course of several weeks in which the volunteer visits once a week for the duration of the program. Some JA area offices use a "JA in a Day" format in which the JA program is delivered during one school day by a team of volunteers to some or all of the classrooms in a school.
About Junior Achievement USA® (JA)
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches more than 4.5 million students per year in 114 markets across the United States, with an additional 5.8 million students served by operations in 120 other countries worldwide. Junior Achievement USA is a member of JA Worldwide. Visit www.ja.org for more information.