In addition to being labeled as one of the nation’s most dangerous cities, Camden is also branded as one of the nation’s most impoverished (research suggests those issues go hand-in-hand).

Enter Jamaal Na’im and his project, “Operation: Combat Financial Illiteracy,” an initiative to address information gaps in Camden by equipping natives with knowledge about money management.

Na’im is also an avid chess player. We met him on a Tuesday evening at the Cramer Hill Community Center, where he hosts a weekly chess club for kids.

He says there are lessons in financial security that one can learn from one of the oldest and most widely-played strategy games of all time.

“Controlling the center of the board is a key concept of chess,” Na’im says. “Chess is about financial advantages.”

“Financial strategy or planning lends itself to becoming more materially advantaged,” He says. “To be financially literate is like the knowledge of controlling the center of your board and other principles of chess.”

Na’im, chief accountant and founder of downtown Camden’s Safe and Sound Stewards, is a fellow for “Stories Invincible” — one of the Center’s latest community reporting initiatives that feature restorative narratives produced by and for communities of color in South Jersey.

The 28-year-old South Jersey native hosted a series of financial literacy workshops this winter and presently creates multimedia projects on an array of fiscal-related topics.