Since the program’s inception in November 2015, the Reality Store curriculum has been presented to students in both Leon and Gadsden Counties, serving more than What is the Reality Store?
The Reality Store is a fun and effective way for young adults to learn about personal accounting and financial responsibility. This program was developed by the Indiana Federation of Business and Professional Women; we purchased the curriculum and training materials.
Participants are assigned a career, marital status, and number of children. We have ten booths set up around the room, each representing a facet of budgeting (housing, groceries, childcare, etc.) Students visit each booth and make decisions for their household on their budget.
Additionally, “Life Unexpected” cards are handed out during the process. These include situations like popping a tire, AC going out, winter jackets are needed, etc. Volunteers especially love the real-life curveballs.
A volunteer is stationed at each booth to help answer questions and provide insight into wants vs needs. Frequently, volunteers will make points such as “you have an office job but didn’t buy any work clothes. What are you planning to wear?” We want the students to make their own choices (and face the consequences,) while, of course, helping share what we’ve learned along the way.
Our target age group is middle school-college age students. The event runs 1.5-2 hours, including a debrief. The group that we are working with provides a venue and 10-12 volunteers.
We do have a volunteer interest list on our end that we can recruit some volunteers from if getting that volume of volunteers is a challenge.
Usually, we have a sponsoring bank or credit union that provides snacks and checkbook registers.
We have had great responses from students and volunteers, agreeing that this is a great glimpse into the adult world. I have been very impressed with how seriously the students take the event and the discussion points they’ve made afterwards.
For further information on Reality Store or to schedule the Reality Store to come to you school or event, please contact CommunityImpact@uwbb.org or (850) 414-0844, option 4
