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“For young people growing up in families with too little financial resource, it is incredibly empowering to have a job, earn a paycheck and save money.  Juma's unique combination of services makes this possible for 400 young people each year. The Walter and Elise Haas Fund is proud to support Jumas's IDA program, knowing our investment matches the savings of hard working young people helping them to meet their goals”.          

Amanda Feinstein, Program Officer, Economic Security
Walter & Elise Haas Fund

Asset Building Services

Individual Development Accounts

Juma pioneered the concept of Individual Development Accounts (IDA) for youth, and currently operates the most successful youth IDA program in the U.S. In this program, Juma youth establish savings accounts, begin to save money from their paychecks, obtain money management education through a series of financial literacy workshops, and receive matching funds to accelerate their savings toward post-secondary education and other asset purchases. Juma has opened more than 600 IDA accounts since 2000, with youth savings totaling more than $656,491.86 and $843,669.96 in accessed match funds. 70% of these savings and matching funds have been used for post-secondary education, 25% for micro-enterprise expenses, and 5% for home purchases.

If you are a low-income youth, between 16 and 24 years old and you live in the Bay Area you may qualify for an IDA. Click here PDF (PDF, 105 KB) for more information.

Read our Frequently Asked Questions PDF (PDF, 59 KB).

Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship and Downpayment (SEED)

Between 2004 and 2007, Juma was one of twelve organizations across the country that demonstrated how savings account programs can work with children of all ages and in urban, suburban and rural settings. Juma’s program served 75 youth, between the ages of 14-18, with IDA’s through the SEED policy and practice initiative. Initial research, conducted in 2001, resulted in 13 research background papers. SEED operations began in Fall 2003, and the initiative is proposed to end in 2015. For SEED research and related publications, including in-depth interviews with Juma SEED participants, click here. Research from this demonstration is beginning to describe the many social and economic implications of youth savings initiatives, from IDA accounts to Savings 529 structures.

Gain Resources, Opportunity and Wealth (G.R.O.W.) Statewide IDA Initiative PDF (PDF, 59 KB)

Building on its field expertise and capacity to house IDAs, Juma is replicating its asset building program to low-income youth across California through G.R.O.W. With major support from Merrill Lynch, Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the Levi Strauss Foundation, Juma will provide 180 youth from seven youth serving agencies in San Francisco East Bay, San Diego and Los Angeles between 2007 and 2009.

Juma’s history in youth asset development underscores why we have chosen to partner with other youth service providers around IDA delivery. First, our experience informs us that working with youth to encourage better savings and spending habits and motivate them towards achieving a long-term goal can be labor intensive. Second, we realized that an IDA program works best when it is part of a whole range of support services that work towards reinforcing accountability, long-term planning, and encouraging goals such as secondary education or microenterprise. In addition, partnerships, with a strategy to centralize data and administrative processes and divide the labor of operating IDA programs, have long been considered one of the ways to offset the demands of implementing IDA programs.

Like Juma, our collaborative partners provide their youth participants with a whole range of supportive services in addition to IDAs, which include employment, job training, tutoring, college bound services, career exploration, after school activities, life skills training, and case management. Currently, Juma partners with Young Entrepreneurs at Haas, East Oakland Youth Development Center, Brotherhood Crusade, Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach, Maac Project , and South Bay Community Services to help them build capacity to run their own IDA programs and provide quality IDA support to their youth. Juma provides G.R.O.W. partners with Juma’s financial education curriculum, some initial match funds, and ongoing training and technical assistance around IDA delivery.

Financial Education

Juma provides a core series of financial education classes that teach youth how to budget, determine needs from wants, how to build credit, and other money management topics. These workshops are linked to in-depth individualized financial coaching around money concerns youth may have such as taxes, financial aid for college, and banking. Juma Assets staff are available to assist Juma-employed youth in San Francisco and Oakland with any financial concerns they may have, including budgeting, tax preparation, opening and maintaining a bank account, and applying for financial aid. In 2008, Juma also launched a financial mentoring partnership with Progress Investment, which pairs Juma youth with finance professionals.

First Accounts

Juma’s First Accounts program is available to Juma’s youth employees, many whom do not have bank accounts and go to check-cashing establishments. Juma partners with Citibank in San Francisco and OneCalifornia in Oakland to provide Juma youth employees access to fee-free checking and savings accounts. Juma provides workshops to educate youth around bank account management, the difference between checking and savings accounts and how to avoid fees. For more information on why you should get a bank account, click here.

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