LEAP Partners Help Youth Build Financial Skills on Path to Success

Many young peo­ple — espe­cial­ly those who’ve expe­ri­enced pub­lic sys­tems and home­less­ness — have missed out on oppor­tu­ni­ties to earn, spend and save their own mon­ey or even receive guid­ance on finan­cial deci­sions. Fill­ing this infor­ma­tion and expe­ri­ence gap is a key com­po­nent of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Learn and Earn to Achieve Poten­tial (LEAP)™ initiative.

LEAP aims to help young peo­ple find and nav­i­gate suc­cess­ful path­ways to school and work after expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness, fos­ter care or the jus­tice sys­tem. Across the nation today, LEAP part­ners are inte­grat­ing an excit­ing mix of strate­gies to help these youth max­i­mize their earn­ings, set sav­ings goals, build good cred­it and, ulti­mate­ly, estab­lish finan­cial secu­ri­ty and independence.

Some exam­ples of how LEAP part­ners are work­ing to build par­tic­i­pants’ finan­cial skills include:

• Jobs for Arizona’s Grad­u­ates, which hosts a series of work­shops intro­duc­ing LEAP par­tic­i­pants to bud­get­ing and oth­er finan­cial lit­er­a­cy con­cepts. Par­tic­i­pants maneu­ver var­i­ous real-world sce­nar­ios, includ­ing an online sim­u­la­tion of what it’s like to make ends meet with just $1,000.
• The Door and Coali­tion for Respon­si­ble Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment, which offer one-on-one coach­ing ser­vices to help LEAP par­tic­i­pants access col­lege aid. This includes guid­ing youth through the Free Appli­ca­tion for Fed­er­al Stu­dent Aid, review­ing reward require­ments and assist­ing with the appeals process if fee- or grade-relat­ed bar­ri­ers arise.
• Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine and Nebras­ka Chil­dren and Fam­i­lies Foun­da­tion, which help eli­gi­ble LEAP par­tic­i­pants enroll in Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port™, a matched sav­ings pro­gram that com­bines finan­cial lit­er­a­cy train­ing and bank­ing access to help youth tran­si­tion­ing from sys­tems cov­er major expens­es, such as buy­ing a car or pay­ing for hous­ing and school. Both part­ners are cur­rent­ly explor­ing options to enroll more LEAP youth in Oppor­tu­ni­ty Passport.
• South Bay Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices, which works to ensure that young peo­ple tran­si­tion­ing from con­fine­ment have safe and afford­able hous­ing options. The non­prof­it helps LEAP youth enroll in the Rapid Re-Hous­ing pro­gram, which cov­ers 70 to 100% of a participant’s rent bills annu­al­ly. South Bay also offers onsite tran­si­tion­al hous­ing, which LEAP par­tic­i­pants can access for up to 24 months.

Learn more about LEAP