Community Calendar

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT of Northwest Florida

Junior Achievement works with the business community to ensure that tomorrow’s workforce and future business leaders are prepared to enter the professional setting ready to use their knowledge of proper professional conduct, basic personal finance skills, and a general understanding of economics and budgeting.  Simply put, JA teaches kids how money, careers, and free enterprise work. Our programs are taught by volunteer role models from around the area and these individuals drive significant outcomes such as improved self-efficacy and ideas for a future career.

JA Works:

Independent studies show that Junior Achievement works. Students who participate in JA programs for five consecutive years demonstrate significantly more critical thinking and job interviewing skills. Even one exposure to a JA program gives a student a greater comprehension of economics and business. JA students score higher on objective-referenced tests, are more likely to attend college and have a more positive self-concept and higher self-esteem.

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Results:

Junior Achievement reached more than 5,000 students in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Bay Counties in the 2015-2016 school year. More than 250 volunteers taught students in classes in elementary, middle and high school grade levels. These results are consistent with past years, as the community realizes the need for financial literacy and inspiring programs for our youth to understand the economics of life.

For more information, visit: www.ja.org.

My Father’s Arrows

My Father’s Arrows, Inc. is a faith-based ministry, community driven, public charity that specializes in restoration and orphan care. MFA was established in 2014 in efforts to do a greater work for the children in foster care and in service to special needs children affected by trauma. By targeting the high risk, high volume population of children impacted by trauma and the foster care system, and focusing on meeting this group’s most critical needs, MFA is creating systemic change that not only impacts the youth served, but also the community at large.MFA is meeting the needs of a particularly vulnerable group of youth with dysfunctional attachments, who are at risk of

re-entering the foster care system due to disruption in adoptions and who are profoundly difficult to

place in stable, therapeutic care environments.

We educate the community on the children’s needs, recruit more caregivers and advocates for the children, and procure child-specific resources to help them reach their maximum potential.

Our Vision:

To facilitate, encourage, and publicize the need for foster/adoption/mentoring of special needs children in foster care as defined as being children: >10 yrs old, minority groups, sibling groups, and/or mental and physical disabilities.  To inspire and educate community members that otherwise would not have considered serving these children in such capacity.  To coordinate resources for special needs foster children that will enhance their quality of life and assist them in maximizing their potential for independence while meeting their unique challenges.

Our Mission:  Provide children who have been impacted by trauma with safety, nurturing, and stability that helps them grow into healthy, thriving adults, and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Our Goals:

• Create stability for the special needs children affected by trauma

• Obtain resources to meet the critical needs of the youth in foster care

• Provide life skill training opportunities that will prepare at-risk children to be productive citizens

• Offer common permanency through the faith based community for the children who were never, or are not likely to be adopted

• Educate the community on the needs of local children affected by trauma

• Recruit foster parents, adoptive parents, and guardian ad litem advocates for children

• Teach vulnerable youth and their caregivers about coping skills, healthy relationship development, and support systems