by Matt Cafiso
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid
Pro Bono Spotlight
JALACARE is an outreach education program that trains local attorneys and judges to teach financial literacy to students attending Duval County public high schools.
JALACARE is Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s chapter of C.A.R.E. (Credit Abuse Resistance Education), a national program created in 2002 by New York Bankruptcy Judge John C. Ninfo II to mobilize lawyers to prevent credit abuse by teaching high school students how to resist debt and to become financially literate.
JALA attorney April Charney organized the Jacksonville chapter of CARE in 2007 and she trains all interested lawyers to teach JALACARE’s debt resistance curriculum. Charney’s knowledge of consumer affairs led her to put JALA’s brand on the Duval CARE chapter by focusing on 10 rules for financial health that incorporate specific lessons on budgeting, saving and avoiding “credator” tricks and traps and by encouraging the lawyers to customize the teaching materials based on the “10 Rules.”
JALACARE presents a simple and accessible way for lawyers to become ubiquitous in our public schools, teaching students how to resist credit abuse by making wise debt decisions based on a solid foundation of financial literacy.
Lawyers, after being trained by Charney, are linked with a specific teacher in one of the targeted schools to teach the JALACARE curriculum for a total of 180 minutes, which is divided into two 90-minute sessions.
The first session focuses on credit: vocabulary, affording unhelpful credit, the private world of FICO scores and the realities of credit. The second session concerns debt management, budgeting and financial planning. The JALACARE curriculum is reinforced with handouts, activities and worksheets to be designed and used at the discretion of the lawyer-as-instructor.
Typically, two lawyers are paired to teach the JALACARE curriculum as a team, but this process is flexible and can accommodate judges and law students in the team teaching projects. Every lawyer-as-instructor enhances the JALACARE curriculum through the use of personal and professional anecdotes.
CARE’s national website also provides a link to an overwhelming universe of financial literacy materials that can be utilized by lawyer-as-instructor and student alike. Visit www.careprogram.us.
The JALACARE curriculum is geared toward an extremely “at-risk” demographic - high school students. As a fast-growing segment of the population with constant financial needs, credit sellers target the “just left high school” demographic with deceptively accessible credit. JALACARE’s consumer-empowering lessons about credit abuse and debt resistance seek to help the next generation of American consumers become informed and responsible.
The next JALACARE training is 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at JALA’s downtown office at 126 W. Adams St.
The training is free and includes a snack, so please get involved!
Contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information. Attorneys that attend the JALACARE training receive 2.5 CLE hours and every hour dedicated to the training or the teaching can be reported as pro bono hours.
Do not miss this exciting opportunity to participate in consumer advocacy, meet other attorneys and receive free CLE hours.
For information about pro bono opportunities in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, contact Kathy Para, JBA Pro Bono Committee chair, [email protected], 356-8371, ext. 363.