Money Management Seminar for 300 GED Parents!

Hello Everyone! Thanks for visiting!

My name is Deb Avara and I am an Assistant Professor at Amarillo College - the first "No Excuse" Community College in the Country. No Excuses is a program that basically says we will do everything in our power to help students succeed. With that, the 3 lowest socio economic elementary schools here have partnered in and adopted the No Excuse pledge for their students. The students that attend these schools are being taught from day one that college can be and  should be a plan, that they can succeed and that they can rise from poverty.

The parents of these children are seeing their children being encouraged to do well, to plan a career, to have dreams and hopes - and they are also being encouraged. This semester alone has 300 parents signed up and taking steps to receive their GED. They too are planning on college and rising out of poverty.

And here in lies the fundraiser. Kim Zimmer, the No Excuse Program Director for the elementary schools and I have teamed up to try and raise $8500 to host 4 to 6,  3 hour seminars on Money Management for these 300 parents.  Poverty is generational. These parents are living in poverty, working low paying jobs, living paycheck to paycheck. They know no other way when it comes to money. As they succeed, get an education and get better paying jobs, they will remain in poverty because they will still not know how to budget, save, invest, 401k's, Roth IRA's, etc etc. If we are doing everything in our power to help them succeed, we believe training in money management is mandatory.

The $8500 will provide a book and workbook for each participant, snacks (if you feed them they will come), door prizes (more encouragement to come), certificates of completion and a small stipend for the teacher. We are planning in March 2013  to offer 4 seminars: 1 morning, 1 afternoon, 1 evening, 1 Saturday, in order to work around all work schedules, and offering 2 more seminars where needed to accommodate all the participants.

Please help us help them as they work so hard to overcome poverty. From our hearts we Thank You.