Q&A talks about Junior Achievement of Southwest New England’s growth ambitions with Jeremy Race, the nonprofit’s chief operating officer.
Q: What’s new with Junior Achievement? How has private sector support been in recent years?
A: Overall, our organization has grown tremendously thanks to our donors and volunteers. Our funding base has increased from $1 million less than 10 years ago to nearly $2 million this fiscal year, allowing us to strategically grow our staff to now 16 employees and develop systems to ensure our sustainability for years to come. We also have a solid group of dedicated volunteers who have helped maintain our student numbers (roughly 32,000 to 35,000 over the past few years) as we developed and piloted new, intensive programming.
Q: What are some of your new programs?
A: In recent years, we have developed three new intensive programs for high school students:
• JA Global Connection — a two-year student exchange with JA China that teaches young people about innovation, entrepreneurship and global trade, while also providing a cultural exploration for both U.S. and Chinese students.
• JA Entrepreneurial Academy — a 15-week afterschool program that brings together students from both urban and suburban schools to develop, create and operate an actual business.
• JA Career Connections for Young Women, developed in collaboration with Junior League of Hartford — a 10-week afterschool program that allows young women to explore careers that are historically more male-dominated.
Q: You mentioned that one of your goals is to reach more students with your various programs and services. How many students do you currently reach? What’s the goal/target?
A: This year we will reach about 400 students through the programs mentioned above, in addition to job shadows, student conferences and other special programs. However, we are serving close to 36,000 students (kindergarten through high school) annually with our core in-school programming. Though this sounds like a big number, it represents only 8 percent of the student population in our service area so we are aiming to have an even deeper impact in Connecticut schools.
As we think about the future, we are asking ourselves questions like, ‘How many students could we potentially serve in 10 years — 60,000? 75,000? What do we need to do as an organization to get there? And what kind of support would we need from the community to achieve those goals?’
We have a dedicated board of directors who are committed to ensuring our growth and sustainability as we embark on an effort to impact the lives of significantly more young people over the next decade. We are all confident that with the appropriate levels of financial and volunteer support, the sky is the limit to where we can go as an organization.
Q: What is Junior Achievement doing to help Connecticut address its future workforce shortages?
A: Connecticut, as we all know, has one of the most innovative and intelligent workforces in the country. But according to numerous demographic studies, there will be a huge shortage of qualified workers over the next 10 to 20 years, mostly because of the skills gaps that exist.
By bringing business volunteers into local classrooms, JA helps show young people the realities of the workplace and encourages students to consider careers they may have never considered. JA programs show students the value of an education, bridge the gap of what they are learning in the classroom with the real world, and equip them with the skills and tools they need to be more successful in school and their future careers. Specifically, JA has launched an initiative to partner with more manufacturers and businesses in other high-demand industries in an effort to keep our most-talented young people in Connecticut and address the potential workforce shortages that are being forecasted.
Q: Besides being altruistic, what benefits can employers reap by helping train/mentor the next generation?
A: First and foremost, volunteering for JA is fun. We’ve been told hundreds of times that happy employees are more productive employees. Spending time with young people is inspiring and offers a great break from the normal day-to-day work responsibilities. Many companies also partner with JA to encourage team-building, public speaking and leadership development for their employees. And volunteering for JA also provides wonderful branding and community-recognition opportunities for local companies.
In order to serve 36,000 students this year, JA will need the volunteer support of more than 2,000 business and community volunteers. As we look into the future, if we are going to expand our impact to reach 60,000 or 75,000 students, we may need close to 5,000 volunteers. These are big numbers. We hope more businesses and organizations in Connecticut will choose to partner with JA so we can empower more young people to own their economic success.
