“Calculating for Success” First Coast News February 2008, Angela Williams JACKSONVILLE, FL -- "I promise to be a good person, I promise not to be a teen mother?" say the girls at the L.A. Lewis Center as they recite their every day promise. For them, repeating is also believing. Each day they instill in themselves that there's more to life than what they may see in their neighborhoods. Here, the focus is finance. Through the junior achievement's new pilot program J.A. Girls program, hundreds of girls are taught the basics of money management. They learn how to balance a check book, save money and ultimately maintain a household. The program's goal is to tackle the ongoing problem of poverty and teen pregnancy in Jacksonville. Ellen Reed is one of many volunteers who offer their time to help make the program what it is. "I wish someone had taught me earlier. I think that if we started at this younger age I would have been prepared as an adult to make those good choices," says Reed. Through board games and other projects these girls are being given the tools they need for the future. It's something the Lewis Center itself already focuses on. "What we hope will come out of this is that these girls will go back in their communities and be leaders, but not just future leaders, but leaders among their peers and their families," says Lisa Jackson, Director of the L.A. Lewis Center. There are 13 locations that are using the J.A. Girls pilot. The program is free of charge and targets girls ages eight to eighteen years old. Representatives from junior achievement say they plan on presenting the results from Jacksonville to their board of directors at a conference this spring. If successful, the program will spread nationwide.