WOW/ALA Partners with Junior Achievement!

As part of our focus on Education, we have partnered with Junior Achievement to increase our reach and provide more volunteer opportunities to members across the country. This national partnership extends to you at the local level and creates easy opportunities for involvement in your community.

Some Background on JA:

Junior Achievement works to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives. Their mission is to ensure that every child in America has a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system and they work to accomplish this mission through volunteers like us who can teach JA programs at local schools.  Programs span grades K-12, with age-appropriate curricula designed to teach elementary students about their role as individuals, workers and consumers and to prepare middle grade and high school students for key economic and workplace issues they will face.

How We Can Work Together:

JA has nearly 150 offices across the country who work through volunteers to bring their programs into local schools. Our goal is to build positive, mutually beneficial relationships between our local camps/lodges and local JA offices through the national partnership effort.  It is simply another way we can live up to our chosen focus on education and make a lasting impact in our communities through volunteerism.  We can expand our reach through existing, effective programs in the community without having to burden volunteers with planning and organization, and JA works with local businesses to coordinate all necessary funding.   All you have to do is volunteer to help kids!

Why JA?

We chose to partner with JA particularly because we know it works.  Research shows that JA’s programs have a significant impact on student learning.  (For details on research visit www.ja.org and click on programs then evaluation).  JA is perfect for volunteers because it allows them to choose the age they would like to work with, have flexibility in their schedules, and choose a short- or long-term commitment.  JA’s program kits make teaching the programs a breeze and you can even teach a class with a partner or team!  We chose to partner with JA to be able to provide our volunteers with an easy-to-volunteer for project that is likely to be available in their communities.  As part of our focus on education, our goal is to research and develop relationships with organizations we can suggest to you as worthwhile, positive volunteer experiences for you and your members.  We encourage you to promote JA as a volunteer opportunity within your camp/lodge.

How Do We Get Involved?

As a WOW/ALA member, we can help you get in touch with your local JA partner office and arrange for your local JA officer to come to your next camp/lodge local meeting and talk about their programs.  Visit our National Cause page under Volunteerism and use the JA link to find the nearest office, or call 1-800-THE-NEW JA.   Be sure to let them know you are a WOW/ALA volunteer; JA will help us keep track of our volunteer hours to report on an Annual basis!