Ele:Vate
Ele:Vate (Economic Literacy Education: Vital Assets for Transformation and Empowerment) is a multi-partner initiative to train urban youth workers to educate and inspire young people about financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Ele:Vate has sponsored an in-depth training track at the 2004 and 2005 annual national conference of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), at the 2004 Urban Youth Workers Institute, and at the 2006 CCDA Institute in Memphis. Training covers topics including: Biblical Foundations of Economic Literacy; Teaching Economic Concepts in Effective, Engaging Ways in Classroom and After-school Settings; and operating youth entrepreneurship programs.
Ele:Vate partner Central Ohio Youth for Christ has developed Economis, a free, web-based software for urban ministries that enables them to establish a customized “mini-economy” in their ministry. The Economis project is dedicated to helping young people learn the every day money management skills required to succeed in today’s world. It is designed to provide real world experience in using a credit/debit card, earning, spending, using online banking, and learning about taxes and payroll. This experience, however, occurs in a virtual world so that mistakes and problems can become instructive without the consequences of the real world. Click here to watch the new Economis Webinar, which provides an in-depth tour of the program to help you see how it could strengthen your youth ministry.
Ele:Vate also offers free copies of The Job Club Manual. This program, developed by ele:vate partner Urban Concern, offers 12- and 13-year-olds opportunities during the summer term to gain work readiness skills and experience as well as learn some basic financial literacy skills. In 2006, the Ele:vate training track will be offered as an elective course at some of the regional CCDA Institutes, one to two-day training seminars for Christian ministry practitioners.
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