Supporting youth education
As a professional services firm, we have skills and knowledge that we can leverage to increase proficiency in math and financial literacy and better prepare youth to make responsible decisions, be productive citizens, and contribute to a healthier economy. Students in the US lag far behind their peers in math and science, compared to other industrialized countries. We recognize that the business sector has a role to play in collaborating with our communities to support educators in addressing this issue. We believe we can help to close the educational gap through targeted donations, skills-based volunteerism, and partnerships with non-profits that are focused on improving youth education within and outside of the school day. This effort, in turn, helps prepare our workforce of tomorrow, not only for PwC, but also for the broader business community.
As part of our commitment to youth education and people engagement, PwC has created a unique financial literacy curriculum, complete with interactive lessons and multimedia, for grades 3 through 12, which can be accessed by all partners and staff and taught to students through a local or national non-profit partner or school. This branded curriculum empowers our people to use their talents and skills to develop the next generation of leaders while inspiring leadership development and fostering pride in our greater societal contributions.
In assessing the youth financial literacy crisis in America, we have come to realize that some of the most prevalent underlying issues stem from a lack of core curriculum skills and resources in low performing schools. The situation is exacerbated for many children from food insecure homes, who go to school hungry. By addressing the issue at both ends of the spectrum, we have an opportunity to help.
Supporting the education continuum
We direct our efforts at all points in the learning continuum. We work with Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity, to provide nourishment to food-insecure children, which contributes to schools' readiness. We collaborate with the MIND Research Institute, which takes an innovative and proven approach to teaching math through spatial temporal reasoning, and with DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit that enables individuals to contribute to classrooms in need. We also support The First Tee, a non-profit that provides young people from all backgrounds an opportunity to develop through golf and character education. We partner with the United Way, which helps identify after-school programs where our people can volunteer their skills. We have a longtime partnership with Junior Achievement, which offers our people another opportunity to combine youth education with skills-based volunteering. Finally, we recently joined forces with Knowledge @ Wharton High School, to help provide professional-development opportunities for educators to teach financial literacy in their classrooms.
We recognize that in addition to the above partnerships there are opportunities to engage in robust dialogues around this issue with clients who are considering their own CR efforts, many of whom also support youth development. Collectively, this is an opportunity to make an important impact on an essential need.
