Junior Achievement (JA) empowers young people to own their economic success. Our volunteer-delivered, K-12 programs foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire kids to dream big and reach their potential. WHAT IS JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT? Junior Achievement is the nation's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their futures, and make smart academic and economic choices. Junior Achievement’s programs—in the core content areas of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy—ignite the spark in young people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of work and life in the 21st century. PURPOSE To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. VOLUNTEERS JA of Western MA's 400 volunteers come from all walks of life, including: business people, college students, parents, and retirees. These dedicated individuals are the backbone of our organization. Last year, JAWM Volunteers taught 574 programs and reached over 12,000 students. They donated nearly 84,000 hours, valued at over $2.5 million. PROVEN SUCCESS Junior Achievement is one of a few nonprofits to use independent, third-party evaluators to gauge the impact of its programs. Since 1993, independent evaluators have conducted studies on Junior Achievement’s effectiveness. Findings prove that Junior Achievement has a positive impact in a number of critical areas. These results are available free upon request. Summaries of the findings also are published in the JA Programs section at www.ja.org. A BRIEF HISTORY JA was founded in Springfield, MA in 1919 by Theodore Vail, president of AT&T; Horace Moses, of Strathmore Paper Co.; and Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts.