JA Finance Park® Prince George's County Case Statement

MEN E T A T S CASE

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Finance

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Prince George’s County: A Model for Success Prince George’s County understands the American dream. This county that straddles the Beltway is known for its diversity, wealth, and the way it has always embraced the vision of possibility.

This commitment to the county’s collective future is what sets Prince George’s County apart today and establishes it as a model for generations to come.

Just as Prince George’s County families illustrate what is possible, like so many across the country, they were hit hard by the financial crisis. 2010 saw a record 3.24 million foreclosure filings in the United States.

Homeownership rates among people with children

under 18 fell sharply during the recession, declining 15% between 2005 and 2011, according to Census Bureau data. U.S. home values fell 17.3% since their peak in 2007, leaving many homeowners underwater on their mortgages. Many people found their safety net shredded; the number of people expecting to retire after age 65 expanded to 27 percent, up from just 11 percent in 1991, according to a study from the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

56%

average score of high school student on the Financial Literacy Challenge in 2009.

1 5 out of

Americans who lived beyond their means in 2012.

In Prince George’s County and around the country, many families were left ill-equipped to handle the financial crisis. The truth is that a culture of financial illiteracy thrives.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Treasury reported that the average high school student scored a 56% failing grade on the Financial Literacy Challenge to assess financial knowledge. In 2012, 1 out of 5 Americans lived beyond their means, with the average American having $27,253 in student loan debt and $15,000 in credit card debt. Despite these numbers, half of all Americans do not maintain a budget. Instead of financial independence, young people just starting out as adults in Prince George’s County and around the nation are finding themselves more financially challenged each year. Alarmingly, they also lack the knowledge and tools necessary to rise above it.

We must break this cycle.

Today, this community has a unique opportunity to reach above the statistics and give a new generation the tools necessary to control their future. By making this community investment, Prince George’s County will create a society that understands how to build a brighter future and establish itself as a leader among counties.

It begins today with Junior Achievement Finance Park.

together

Inspiring Kids to Control Their Future In partnership with Prince George’s County Public Schools and Capital One, Junior Achievement Finance Park in Prince George’s County will be Greater Washington’s second financial literacy center.

Piloted over the last four years, this new 13,000-square-foot financial literacy center will be located on the campus of G. James Gholson/Cora Rice in Landover, Maryland. It will bring in-depth, dynamic financial literacy education to every 8th grader in Prince George’s County and other community members who are interested in building their money management skills. Before students travel to Finance Park, they will take part in Junior Achievement’s unique classroom curriculum. Their experience will culminate at Finance Park, where these young people will have the opportunity to put their newly-learned skills to the test in the innovative learning environment of Finance Park—a mock city where students experience the challenges of making real-life financial decisions that

will lay the foundation for how they approach their financial responsibilities in the future.

These young people will walk in your shoes. They will understand what it really means to pay for college, buy a car, apply for a mortgage, and plan for the future. They will decide what is important: a home with a pool or closer to good neighborhood schools. They will balance their personal budgets, pay the utility bills and recalculate their investments. They will understand that life is a series of decisions that can mean the difference between success and failure. Prince George’s County youth will see that it is possible to control their future—but only if they take the rudder and choose a direction.

90%

of graduates reported that they felt more confident in their ability to be successful in the future.

89%

of graduates felt more confident about making decisions that deal with money.

The Finance Park experience works!

87 percent of these young people were more apt to believe that the way they manage money will affect their futures, and 86 percent reported that they know more about how to develop a personal budget. According to many students’ comments, their awareness of the expensive realities of life and the necessities of budgeting increased. Graduates of Finance Park gained new respect for their parents’ responsibilities.

Junior Achievement Finance Park in Prince George’s County is the result of focused, senior-level JA/PGCPS deliberations that addressed the system’s academic and curriculum needs related to ensuring every student graduates with a grasp of financial literacy.

These discussions resulted in a 15-year partnership agreement between Junior Achievement and the Prince George’s County School Board. Finance Park is scheduled to open for the 2014/15 school year. Junior Achievement is committed to a rigorous evaluation process to ensure the Finance Park experience works for Prince George’s County families today and far into the future.

The first Junior Achievement Finance Park in the Greater Washington area opened in Fairfax County, Virginia, in October 2010. To date, close to 42,000 young people have experienced Finance Park through 45 school visits from 6 school systems throughout the region and 661,920 curriculum hours have been delivered. There are 19 Junior Achievement Finance Parks nationwide.

[Students] transform into adults, with all the financial obligations thereof. Each student receives a life situation that spans the economic spectrum. Some become married couples earning six figures; others are single parents making ends meet. There are students who are single with plenty of disposable income, and those who only thought they had money to spare until they began tackling their budgets.

During their day at the park, students visit [eighteen] faux stores to purchase a dizzying array of life’s necessities, from clothing to college education. They track the rise and fall of their stock portfolios through a prominently displayed scrolling ticker. A few fortunate students get “lucky chances” granting them extra dollars for, say, helping the elderly. Others receive the not-so-happy news that their car broke down or their sunglasses cracked, resulting in an unplanned expense.

“Financial literacy is not a fad,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said during the grand opening of Finance Park [in Fairfax County]. “It is a critical thing for everybody.”

“Fairfax Students Get Hands-On Lesson in Personal Finance” Washington Post October 23, 2010

Inspiring Students to Chart an Innovative Course Forward At Junior Achievement, we are inspiring the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and entrepreneurs to chart an innovative course forward.

We are more than lemonade stands and small businesses—we’re financial freedom, innovation, entrepreneurship, and success in a modern economy.

As the leading educator and enabler of personal economic empowerment in Greater Washington, we promote financial literacy, encourage visionary goals, and provide a window to the future through role models and mentors that can help kids harness the vision to excel. We do so while remembering our history and our mission built on the foundation of the boundless potential of young people. At JA, we believe the American dream should be less about dream and more about attainable goal—and we’re here to support Prince George’s County in its efforts to ensure that young people are able to find success on their own terms.

Junior Achievement is the only organization that brings proven curriculum together with hands-on-experience delivered in partnership with education, business, and nonprofit leadership. Our vision for the future is that every middle school student in Greater Washington will be impacted by the Finance Park experience. We will achieve this by continuing to build strategic partnerships with area businesses, nonprofits, and school systems.

Our partnership with the Prince George’s County community will serve as a model throughout the region.

The Prince George’s County community has an opportunity to join with Junior Achievement to think big, build on the past, and help the next generation succeed in the future.

Join Us to Show Anything is Possible Prince George’s County has the chance to show what is possible when a diverse group of committed citizens comes together to break the cycle of financial illiteracy.

In making this investment, we can continue to build on Prince George’s County’s past as an economic model of opportunity and ensure that in a decade, we have a new cadre of young adults with the vision and tools to succeed. Prince George’s County can show the rest of the country that anything is possible.

But we cannot build the future without you. Junior Achievement Finance Park is a community effort. Investment in our kids is an investment with exponential return.

We’re in. Are you?

SM

F I N A N C E

P A R K

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