Javisha Jackson is one of seven Friendship Court residents on the Youth Leadership Team. The team has been meeting regularly since September at the Friendship Court Community Center and is an important part of Piedmont Housing Alliance’s resident engagement in the redevelopment of Friendship Court. The goal is to equip resident youth leaders with the skills to provide input for the redevelopment with particular focus on activity areas, green space, and programming. Youth participants gain valuable skills, experiences, and academic and professional networks that will create educational and career opportunities.
Javisha, 17, is in the 11th grade at Charlottesville High School. She has four brothers. Javisha is learning a lot about credit and savings through the Youth Leadership Program. Her favorite color is blue and she likes listening to R&B and hip-hop music. Javisha would love to travel to Paris or Barcelona because they both look so beautiful. She is thinking of becoming an obstetrician when she gets older.
Javisha was interested in becoming a member of the Youth Leadership Team because it gives her the chance to help other kids out at Friendship Court. She also thinks this will help her learn about the redevelopment in a way for her to share with others.
Shelley, a housing counselor at Piedmont Housing, has more than 12 years of experience teaching a variety of classes ranging from financial budgeting to home ownership. In her first session, Shelley covered basic money management and discussed how to create a budget. They participated in several activities to help them start thinking more in-depth about money management. In one activity, the team talked about leaders and how a leader might make decisions about money. Shelley also split the team into two groups, and asked them to explain how they might teach a group of 5th graders about money management and budgeting. This gave them an opportunity to share what they had learned.
Knowing how to deal with one’s finances is a critical life skill. Since the youth receive a stipend for participating in the youth leadership program, and have or will soon have jobs, offering them an opportunity to learn about the importance of money management and good credit is a very valuable experience. Claudette Grant, Friendship Court’s community organizer said, “You are never too young to learn these skills.”
