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Building (and Scaling) a Global Partnership

July 19, 2017
Brandee McHale, Head of Community Investing and Development at Citi and President of the Citi Foundation
Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide

No generation is feeling the impacts of the complex economic and social realities of today more than young people. As the largest youth population in history, one consistent struggle they face is persistent unemployment. Today, about one-third of youth worldwide are either unemployed, not in school, or not enrolled in a training or development program. How will these young people become the next generation of talented leaders without the necessary training and employment opportunities they deserve?

This is where Junior Achievement Worldwide (JA) comes in. As one of the world's largest youth-serving NGOs — reaching over 10 million young people each year — JA Worldwide leads a global, federated network spread over 118 countries and represents one of the largest distribution networks reaching young people today, providing training in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. For the past three decades, Citi and the Citi Foundation have been working together with JA to help manage and scale JA's network and ensure pathways to opportunity and upward mobility for young people around the world.

This relationship makes sense. Citi and JA Worldwide are both organizations that have a global presence and a shared commitment to inspire and prepare young people—our future leaders and our future consumers—to succeed in a global economy. When nonprofits and corporations partner, they enable mission alignment and goal clarity on a regional or global scale while tapping local insight and functional expertise.

Over the past three decades years, with $50+ million invested by the Citi Foundation and 150,000+ hours donated by Citi employee volunteers, this partnership has been able to impact the lives of over 4 million youth. We're incredibly proud of our 30-year partnership and, most importantly, the work we do to build young people's skills and encourage them to dream — and act — big.

Read more here.

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