JA receives $200K Neighborhood Builders Grant from Bank of America

Posted in: Partners, Support, Volunteers

Junior Achievement of Arizona today was named the 2018 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders® award recipients for our efforts providing financial education and early job readiness for underserved kids. The Neighborhood Builders program is the nation’s largest philanthropic investment into nonprofit leadership, and awards each nonprofit $200,000 in unrestricted grant funding to expand their high impact programs.

Arizona continues to experience rapid job growth and new industries, with employment in and around Phoenix, projected to grow at four times the national average in the next 20 years. However, the state also has one of the nation’s highest rates of disconnected youth – young people who are homeless, in foster care, involved in the justice system, unemployed – with a 14.6% disconnected youth rate, 2.3% above the national average. Junior Achievement is bridging the divide between Arizona’s youth who have the drive to succeed and employers who seek diverse, entry-level talent.

“We’re thrilled to have Bank of America alongside us as we develop our first digital curriculum, and are especially excited to accelerate the development of our new educational video game. This digital curriculum will not only allow us to provide interactive learning tools to underserved students, but will also allow us to reach populations that do not currently have access to Junior Achievement of Arizona curriculum,” said Katherine Cecala, President of Junior Achievement of Arizona. “Bank of America employees have been volunteer teaching financial education alongside Junior Achievement of Arizona for 20 years, and we’re delighted that this partnership and program continues to evolve with how youth consumes and processes new information.”