Rutgers Professor Visits Local Preschool

Barbara O’Neill, a CFP®, Distinguished Professor, and Specialist in Financial Resource Management at Rutgers Cooperative Extension, recently paid a visit to the preschool classroom at the Little Sprouts Early Learning Center to read several children’s books about the importance of being responsible with money as part of Project Self-Sufficiency’s Celebrity Reader program. “As a financial educator at Rutgers University, I wanted to read a book that teaches children a lesson about money,” said Barbara. “The moral of the story was that you’ll always be broke if you spend every penny that you get. Hopefully, the children will remember that. It is a very important life lesson.”

The Celebrity Reader program is a component of Project Self-Sufficiency’s Family Literacy Program, which exists primarily to assist parents with obtaining their GED or with passing the college placement exam. While in the program, parents also engage in a variety of activities designed to promote literacy within the entire family.

Project Self-Sufficiency is a private non-profit community-based organization dedicated to improving the lives of low-income families residing in northwestern New Jersey. The agency’s mission is to provide a broad spectrum of holistic, respectful, and comprehensive services enabling low-income single parents, teen parents, two-parent families, and displaced homemakers to improve their lives and the lives of their children through the achievement of personal and economic self-sufficiency and family stability. Since 1986 Project Self-Sufficiency has served more than 20,000 families, including over 30,000 children. For information about the programs and services offered by Project Self-Sufficiency, visit www.projectselfsufficiency.org or call 973-940-3500.