JA Finance Park

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We’re gearing up for a busy spring semester and are in need of volunteers for our JA Finance Park program. The time commitment is 8AM-2PM and volunteers would be coaching middle school students through a budgeting simulation with the goal of creating and balancing a budget for their fictional families. Each student receives a different life persona with varying occupations, education levels, debt/savings levels, gross annual income, marital status and number of children. With this info, the volunteer and students work together to determine an amount for saving, research the different budget categories, allocate money to the 20 or so different categories, make decisions on how they will spend their money and finally pay their bills. Volunteers typically work with a group of 6 or so students and share their own personal/professional experiences with them to help make wise financial decisions. The entire simulation is paperless and occurs on a tablet. Volunteers receive training the morning of their visit, so there is no prep work involved.