SALISBURY, Md.- Work at the 25,000 square foot Perdue Henson Junior Achievement Center is well underway in Salisbury. JA has contracts with school districts of 6 Eastern Shore county schools plus Accomack County. President and CEO of Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore Jayme Hayes says students will come three times during their K-12 career, meaning 10,000 students into the center each year.
"Just like our traditional programming, our students will get the in class programming so they're prepared for arrival...when they arrive it depends what grade level their in, elementary school, middle and high school are the three touch points that our students will attend the facility," says Hayes. "In elementary school, they'll arrive and work at the facility, so they might work at Pohanka or Tidal health".
By middle school... the pressure is on.
"We'll hand them an I pad and it'll say you're 42 years old you make 32000 a year and your have two kids good luck and you have to buy a house, buy a car, go grocery shopping all the things adults have to do to stay within their budget," says Hayes.
For high school students, their experience will be more to how students see their own life panning out.
"And then in high school when they return, it'll be a little bit more customized to what they want and how they see their family playing out in the future so maybe they don't have children or maybe they have five kids maybe their married maybe their not maybe they'll have college debt.. so they'll have a bit more customization," says Hayes.
To run the center, Hayes says 1,000 volunteers will be needed each year. Hayes says financially, between the contracts with all the school districts, donations and funding from the local businesses who pay a lease for a store front in the mock city, the model sustains itself.
"We will be contracted with each of our districts so this is a true partnership building it together. Our second layer is the fact that the store fronts are actual local businesses that will be supporting us by leasing their space," says Hayes.
Mike Dunn, the Chair of the JA Board says the need for this facility could not be more urgent.
"You hear that these piles of debt that young people have, young married people have young families have... financial literacy is necessary," says Dunn. "Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore is going to be not just providing a really cool, new building, but providing the building blocks for how do you pay your bills? How do you get a job? How to make sure you're always ahead of the game on the financial front. So it's really important"
More information on the center can be found here.
