Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida, Inc.

Mission Statement

Junior Achievement’s Purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Organizational Overview

Junior Achievement provides work/career readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy programs to youth in public schools, after school programs, in partnership with other not for profits as well as focusing on other groups of at-risk youth. The programs provided include much-needed knowledge that is not normally taught in school and seldom at home by parents. JA focuses on Title I schools and other groups that are sometimes not offered the same advantages due to their situation. JA also offers a volunteer to connect with that also shares their story which helps to bring the information to life and connecting it to real-life situations for an everlasting impact. JA bridges the gap of what students are learning in school and how it can be applied in the real world, reinforces the value of education and instills self-confidence. JA has also shown to assist in increasing graduation rates. Overall, young people who drop out are twice as likely as graduates to become unemployed; three times likely to live in poverty; eight times as likely to wind up in prison, and twice as likely to become a parent of a child who drops out of school. Junior Achievement helps prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth effectively, manage it, how to create jobs that make our community more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put the lessons learned with JA into action and learn the value of contributing to their community improving our southwest Florida community.