Job Corps Overview
This Fall, FPA members will have the opportunity to participate in a pilot partnership program that the San Francisco Pro Bono Committee has forged with Job Corps to help Bay Area youth learn basic money management skills.
Job Corps is a federally funded, free education and training program that helps young people learn a career, earn a high school diploma or GED, and find and keep a good job. Job Corps is operated by the US Department of Labor with 123 locations nationwide. The bay area campus is located on Treasure Island with approximately 600 students age 16 to 24. Students of the program graduate with a high school diploma in about one year and study a trade to become employable.
Starting this fall, the FPA will help Job Corps students during their career transition phase as they graduate from high school. Workshops are being offered teaching students how to set up a budget and emergency savings, manage debt and use, build and repair credit. Students will be required to attend a certain number of money management workshops. Sessions are interactive with students using real life examples to learn the basic money management skills they will need to be successful when they graduate from Job Corps.
We launched the program with our first workshop on September 28. We had a large turnout of students and an engaged audience looking for guidance on basic budgeting skills. The Job Corps staff and students are enthusiastic about seeing FPA members host future workshops to help the students build on the skills they learned in the first workshop.
The goal of the FPA Pro Bono Committee partnership with Job Corps is to give our FPA members an opportunity to share their expertise around basic money management and give back to the local community and our youth.
Are you interested in learning more about how you can help local youth become successful in managing their financial lives? Please email Rebecca Contin to learn more about this exciting opportunity.
Testimonials
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I volunteer with Job Corps because I enjoy helping young adults learn basic money management skills. I have access to workshop content that has already been developed and tested, so I'm building on effective materials and easy to follow exercises to do with the students. The Job Corps staff is enthusiastic and supportive of the FPA partnership, they make it easy for me to just show up and talk to the students. Students are given incentives to attend with raffles, pizza nights and they are genuinely interested in learning skills to become financially fit. At the end of a session, a student came up to me with his outline he had drawn up during the workshop that showed how he was going to save money once he graduated from high school and was able to get a job as a chef and live with his mom. - Rebecca Contin |
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Many of the Job Corps students have not been given the opportunities - Ashley Murphy |
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I found my Job Corps experience to be very rewarding: the students were engaged, attentive, and effusive with their gratitude. While a single one-hour class seems woefully inadequate for financial education, I felt like I did make a difference. At the end of the class, the students mentioned some key points that they learned, and I hope that they will take these points with them into the real world. - Stephanie Lee |
