Got feedback for Financial Corps?

Critique of Training 

On the whole, I think the training was a positive experience. I'd like to separate this post on the basis of "pros", "cons", and "suggestions".

Pros:
-Round Robins allowed us to simulate cases - hands on work
-Learning how to write white papers was definitely helpful
-The order of topics (poverty, data collection, counseling, financial planning, & lastly, foreclosure) was well planned - I think it imitates our logical/emotional strategy as financial consultants -- We cannot help others as financial consultants if we do not understand the fundamentals of poverty & skills of counseling. Also, the data collection and financial planning tools will be implemented along the way.
-Sufficient time was given to "social time" - scavenger hunt, dinner on thursday

Cons:
-Round Robins did not focus on actual documentation and they only simulated first time meetings
-More time should be given to class performance of round robins - our "final" on Thursday could have been done Wednesday

Suggestions:
-More emphasis on documentation (going over the mortgages in order to spot out important info)
-Less reading, more in class practice (either push two reading days into a weekend to have 7 in-person training or reduce readings to 3 days)
-Round Robin: doing a session 1,2,3, etc. - actually developing a Loss Mitigation Package that includes a well developed plan of action (for example: if the choice of action is a loan modification in which a loan is reamortized (or change in interest rate or reducton of principal) - then actually go through the steps of calculating the new monthly payment) - Have trainees participate in a loss mitigation package as a consultant but also as a client


See you all thursday!
-Camille

NHS Week 3 -- Unsung Heroes 

I tribute this to…

Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, Tadello Johnson. I have to say, I was impressed to the point of sheer admiration after meeting with Foreclosure Prevention Counselor, Tadello J. His work space is cramped and spartan, there might be only six inches from where the clients sits to the front of his desk and the back of the office wall. Tadello used to commute by train to Norwood, BK, from 181st Washington Heights, around a two-hour odyssey even during rush hour. But he did it for the “good of the cause,” and he’s not wasting a moment. He has the look of a man working at full capacity -- under control though under fire. He’s organized, an expert, tough with a heart that has chosen to feel the struggles, the desperation of others. He’s a young graduate from Hamilton College, a rather prestigious institution and with his multi-faceted set of skills, he could be making much more with a more affluent organization.

How long will he soldier on? He’s young now, as time plods forth, how much longer will the goodness possess him, shoulder him, on that long day’s journey? How does the NPO sector recruit and retain young talent such as Tadello? I have yet to see that for-profit intensity, that for-profit persistency, tenacity…when the strong have tired and slump over from the anonymity promised for career long NPO workers, where is the pipeline to replace tired heels and souls? Proof again that this country is so backwards -- teachers, social workers, those who have their mind on uplifting others through the transfer of knowledge are not celebrated in this country, not even noticed -- they are considered failures or non-entity’s. How do we change this perception, especially among the poor? The poor helping the poor, that’s what we need to see more and more of, and yet now more than ever, where I live and have lived, I don’t see a familiar face that has thought even once about saving themselves by saving their community, their people, their family. The word non-profit is a dirty word to the poor, at least the young men in the inner-city, who I identify with most. They told me I’m crazy for not wanting the money. What’s the point what they mean to say. I think we are all lost when I hear that working for social justice is now considered crazy by those, us, who need it most. When I hear I’m crazy, I know now that they have stolen our sanity, all of it.

Recommendations for Improvements 

Hey all, I've been thinking about our first week and feel mostly positive about the experience. But I suppose our job here on ideascale is to critique, so, that said:

Recommendations for improvements:

---The round robin's were very effective but needed to be supplemented by some hard, real financial analysis --- essentially we did not receive enough practice with manipulating/analyzing real-life financial situations. For example, if we had to work backwards at times (instead of only focusing on foreclosure cases, learning how to properly qualify first-time homeowners for mortgages/loans) that would have been very helpful when it came to figuring out how to implement loss mitigation options.
---There should have been more of a focus on CFP (Certified Financial Planner) skills, which would serve as our base as we built up towards understanding foreclosure and home ownership.
---I believe it would have been useful to have dissected credit and credit scores in detail because I think most of us left without having much more than a superficial understanding of credit and how credit scores are raised or lowered. To properly counsel clients, especially those are cannot save their homes from foreclosure, we must know how to build their credit back up so they can one day own a home again. And most likely we will be dealing with clients who have poor credit since they are in subprime loans or are delinquent on their mortgage payments and have been reported to a collection agency.
----Furthermore, since the FC's members are going to be young/in college, they likely have had very little to no experience with credit besides peripheral contact with credit cards owned by their parents.
----The round robin's needed more defined structure after the first day or two. It is fine/GOOD to have us feel out for ourselves what the counseling experience is like, but I felt after the first two days we needed to have a standard to refer to because thereafter mistakes were being repeated and ingrained and it lessened the effectiveness of the training.
----So I highly suggest that in the future, after the first day or two, the students should be introduced to an example case acted out by those with the proper training and experience, so we can base our round robin experiences on that example case, while also adding/testing our own ideas/theories.
----I also endorse a day in our training dedicated to counseling methods and theories. While the readings for counseling or (General Practitioner) may have seemed "intuitive" I certainly believe we should be wary of that initial assessment. What does it mean to be culturally competent? I think that seems obvious when we are just reading it, but in reality is much more difficult and needs to be addressed in detail.
----Training should be broken up into two weeks, and foreclosure needs to be addressed on the second week after the main CFP skills are built upon in the first week.
----I cannot emphasize enough the value of teaching future FC members the Nature of Discrimination as it exists NOW/Present Times. I have readings to suggest for this and activities. The videos we saw were instructive and useful, and SHOULD be kept in the program so that FC members can see how discrimination has changed/evolved over time.

What it's all about 

Here at The Financial Clinic, I'm seeing some fantastic victories. One of our clients just received a legitimate offer for his home for a short sale that we are organizing. After a lot of paperwork, we're hoping that it will go through.

We motivated another client to call her credit card company and ask for a lower interest rate and a waiver for her late fee. Sure enough, they immediately waived the fee and put in a request to lower her rate. She was ecstatic!

I thought about what it meant to reach this point. During training, actually sitting down with a client felt distant, hypothetical, and far over the horizon. Now everything we learned is in action and happening on a daily basis. It can be stressful--ignorance can render you totally unable to help someone. This makes attention to detail and willingness to ask for help very important. Of course, the payoff that results from diligence and hard work makes it all worth it--seeing a client smile and realize that things are being worked out is infinitely rewarding.

What we are doing is effective and the return on our 'investment' is quite tangible and fast. Our first client is very close to having an unaffordable home off his shoulders. The other client that I mentioned above will see her monthly payments drop after a 10-minute phone call.

Training 

Training was really a great experience. I feel that I know the group well and we're developing great chemistry. Dinner together at Ollie's was a lot of fun!

While the week of readings and white papers was a lot of work, it was indeed rewarding and a necessary feat. Writing the white papers (and having them to refer back to) was a valuable overview of the big issues that will affect our work. The set of poverty readings were very interesting from an academic standpoint, as were those on business planning. Foreclosure, though, was extremely detail-based and difficult to take in with only a day's time. Thankfully, we revisited this topic and developed a solid understanding of the particulars.

The mock-case round robins we did were most helpful. They were a chance to test the waters of counseling and to hone our skills. Like Kirstin mentioned, it's one thing to read about and "understand" counseling, but it is truly completely different to actually do it.

Training Idea 

The training program was well designed especially given that it was a pilot training program. I felt that the case studies were very helpful in allowing us to practice what we learned. However, I didn't really like doing 2 sets of round robins; instead, I felt that we should have done 1 round robin and then move on to a second, where the focus is on seeing more "cases" than to perfect cases we already know. For me, when doing a round robin for a second time, i had already remembered the client's information which translated into a smoother "meeting" because i had known the right questions to ask etc. This was helpful to an extent, but i would have preferred seeing many new cases and learning how to efficiently extract vital information upon meeting a new client. Or, maybe for the second round robin we could have practiced having the second meeting with the client. In summary, I just felt that we could have capitalized more on our limited time than to just repeat what we had done earlier.

Manners matter 

Today Camille and I made our first phone call to a lender. After hanging up and trying back several times, fighting our way through endless phone menus, being transfered countless times, we finally got to the person we wanted. Frustrated as we were, we kept level heads when they answered.

Instead of jumping right into our questions, we started with a simple "how are you." The lender lit up (or so it sounded). It completely changed the direction of the conversation.

Happily, the lender answered all of our questions without a hint of nastiness. Maybe the angry lender is just a stereotype, but being polite and professional is always crucial to accomplishing what you need and negotiating successfully.

First Week at NHS 

NHS Week one:

Forbes and I are both surprised by the NHS citywide office on the first day, mostly because of its size and location. Situated on 36th and 8th, in the heart of the city, NHS has one of the most extensive headquarters for an NPO in the country. The first day is a bit chaotic because NHS does not seem ready for us, the interns from the FC, and we sit around for a bit until we meet several different managers, specifically Theresa, Jennifer, and Juan. We explain that we are at NHS to do foreclosure, but, at this point in time, it appears that the citywide office does not have nearly as many foreclosure cases as they did in the winter, when our FC bosses spoke with them. NHS also seems hesitant to give us real cases immediately because the are not sure of our training, which may stem from the fact that they are not familiar with the Financial Corps as an NPO.

NHS also does financial planning classes, which they have titled "Financial Fitness" classes, and "Pre-homeownership" classes. This is what Juan seems most interested in involving us in, and he briefly glosses us on a credit coaching/training program he wants to develop. What we discover later on is that NHS does not have a dedicated credit building training course, although the financial counselors do advise clients how to fix their credit so they can be approved for mortgages. As it turns out, Forbes and I will not be working on foreclosure cases because NHS does not think we have enough time to start and finish one, due to the time constraints of the summer.

I am a bit surprised at the laid back culture at the office. The people who work there are all dressed rather comfortably, and there seems to be an air of cordiality that feels much different than the insurance office I worked at on wall street. Theresa introduces us to the various employees working at cubicles on the 11th and 12th floors of the NHS office. There are so many of them it's difficult to figure out who is doing what and how it all comes together as one unit. I get the feeling that Forbes and I will not be able to totally comprehend how the office is run, and how all the components work together to create the whole of citywide. Theresa has 16 years of experience under her belt and she seems to have something equivalent to tenure at the office, and she appears to be a master counselor due to her exceptional people skills/emotional I.Q. Jennifer is Theresa's manager and has several years experience as program coordinator/community director at a international German bank.

Jennifer suggests that NPO's are always ahead of financial for-profit institution in terms of flexibility/adaptability/innovation. She says that at her bank changes took much longer and were much more difficult to implement than at NHS. It also seems that NHS has a wealth of community knowledge, and Jennifer explains how various ethnicity's/cultures in the city handle their finances, often according to religious or cultural rules that are much different than American financial behaviors.

Overall, the first week leaves me with the impression that NHS is a very powerful NPO with the resources to help society on a large, national scale, and that is somewhat comforting to think that an NPO can grow to be so large in the first place. Still, I am concerned that NHS is so large that me and Forbes will not be able to have as much as an effect as we could have if it were smaller.

NHS Week Two 

NHS Week Two:

This week begins outside of citywide NHS, and in Queens, Jackson Heights. We are going to visit CHHAYA, a small NPO dedicated to housing and community development of South Asian Americans. Theresa is going there to consult the CHHAYA councilors on self-employed clients, or rather, how to read and analyze self-employed taxes. I am surprised at how tiny the CHHAYA office is -- it's three rooms all connected to each other, no larger than a mid-size studio apartment. I wonder to myself how such a small operation manages to help the amount of people they service on a daily basis. According to the CHHAYA workers, each councilor has 20-25 cases open right now.

Although we came to discuss self-employed tax returns, the employees at CHHAYA start us off with different questions that we aren't prepared for. CHHAYA has to, for HUD data purposes, figure out how much of the original down payment for the mortgage actually went towards the equity in the house (how much out of say, for example, did the 65,000 down payment go towards the principle of the house, and how much went to closing fees and brokers fees etc.) CHHAYA then proceeds to produce mortgage docs that are handwritten in several parts with confusing terms and numbers that none of us can make total sense of. Theresa is appalled by the docs and says she has never seen such sloppy docs and thinks there is something underhanded going on there. Forbes and I see first hand how difficult it is to understand mortgage documents handled exclusively by brokers. It really hits home for me why so many people have been fooled into awful, unsustainable mortgages that they could not have ever hoped to repay once their ARMS went up. How could anyone expect to read and understand some of these contracts if even the professionals are having difficulty figuring out something simple like how much of the down payment actually went to the principle of the home itself! In piles of documents it's exceptionally easy for brokers and lenders to hide fees, add fees, and not justify their numbers as long as no one asks. Furthermore, just looking at so many documents makes one feel defeated and exhausted and incapacitated.

We then move on to how to analyze self-employed tax returns. Theresa has given Forbes and I a packet to study the night before and we are very prepared to lend a hand if need be. As it turns out, Theresa has had a difficult week with her health and has had less time to prepare than us, and she kindly gives me the floor so I lead the information session, with Forbes helping out as well with the numbers. As a team, Forbes and I lead the CHHAYA employees and teach them all the aspects of the tax return that is relevant to figuring out if self-employed person X is qualified for Y loan/mortgage.

After we are done, the CHHAYA team is very grateful to us and both Forbes and I feel a sense of accomplishment, and Theresa seems very proud of us for helping out so much and being prepared to teach.

Later in the week, we visit the South Bronx NHS by Yankee Stadium. The office is much smaller than the citywide office and a little run-down. Interestingly, the south bronx office appears to be getting much more foreclosure cases than citywide at the moment, at least 4/5 a day at this moment in time. I wonder to myself if we should have been placed in the south bronx office so we could have been more of a help, with regard to foreclosure cases.

During this week we also are learning, in depth, about credit and how credit works in this country. It amazes both Forbes and I how little we or our parents know about credit. Forbes and my parents both have advanced degrees, with our father both having Ph.D's, and yet they are very under informed about credit. It seems to me that the three credit scoring companies keep their mathematical models very secret for a reason: the less we know the more power they have over us. How is it that no one in the schools are teaching the youth about something that will, no matter what career they choose, no matter what life they lead, affect them in every aspect of adulthood in America. A joke, it's surely a joke and a damning condemnation of our educational system and adult leadership in this country.

thinking about business plans... 

So for a while now, I've been thinking about my own business plan to present at the end of August. I have always wanted to start my own non-profit. After talking with Kirstin on Thursday, I am thinking about a for-profit microfinance. I have already thought about doing this in real life and I do have a friend who is interested as well.
I'd like to manage a different kind of microfinance - one that gives loans not only for small business ventures. There are many instances in which someone is "bettering" their life without opening a business. I would like help those who want to attend a certification program (for example, a nurse's aide program costs approx. $1600.00), those who want to take driving lessons (having a license will allow them to expand their opportunities), those who need help with their child's school expenses or their own college expenses (small expenses such as books/lab fees), etc.
In addition to this, I'd like to offer financial coaching/counseling to clients. I want this to be an optional service; however, I think it would be best to offer some kind of incentive.
I know that for-profits are obviously supposed to keep the profits. In this case, I would imagine putting the profits back into the company in the hopes of generating new profits and having to depend on grants less. Important to note: I would like to apply for grants for this organization - not loans.
This may sound like a lot. I am a realistic person and I would like this to be a small but effective business. I would rather have a small amount of satisfied clients than have many clients with varying levels of satisfaction.

Guest Speakers 

Here's a quick training idea for future FC Corps members.

We could invite "guest speakers" to come in and teach some of the material that they specialize in. We could even bring in personnel from our partner organizations and perhaps, when the FC really takes off, we could bring in celebrity guest speakers(this would be later into the future). I know that in Kentaro's and my own experience, Theresa is a very knowledgable person on credit, and she would be glad(i think) to come in and teach for a day or two. Also, Camille and Joe's boss, David, could be a good guest speaker to teach about how to read mortgages efficiently.

This is an idea i just thought about, but i believe that it can turn out to be advantageous for us. Partner organizations would know that the material we learned came from respected people of the NPO community, and other organizations would be more open to accept FC Corps members. Plus, it would be more productive than watching that movie...even if it was a good one.

FC-NHS Connection 

Through the creation of our financial coaching program Kentaro and I have wandered upon a potentially terrific opportunity for the Financial Corps. The topic of cost was brought up during our analysis of the coaching program to which Kentaro and I thought, "why not use Financial Corps members?". By providing FC interns as free, un-paid counselors to work as financial coaches, NHS would become a permanent partner of the FC. In addition, the FC may be able to recieve payments from NHS later on, as the financial coaching program becomes an integral part of the NHS. Also, if potential funders for the FC can see that we are so intwined with NHS, the largest housing agency in the country, that would greatly bolster our reputation as well.

Hands-On Work 

This past week has revealed to me that my internship is a unique experience. Unlike other internships that entail "coffee runs" or "office paperwork organizing," today I enteracted with a client, and was given the responsibility of showing him the best possible route so that he, his wife, and two children can stay in their home.

Dealing with foreclosure cases is not easy. There is a lot of information to grasp and no case is exactly like another. Today I met a man who told me that he was going to fight his tears while talking to me. This man was twice my age. He had been misinformed and taken advantage of. He and his family are facing foreclosure and I am they're case manager. There is a lot of work to be done and I cannot promise the man anything. But I am able to help him tap into all possible financial resources. I am able to help him better understand his situation and how it can be solved. I am able to give him hope and I am going to continue to fight and work hard on his and his family's behalf.

Concerned about client.. 

I'm not sure if is actually a gripe. It fits into this category the best. I have a client coming in @ 9:30am tomorrow and I am worried that she is not giving us the best picture of her expenses out of sheer stress (too much stress to deal with this at the moment/see the importance of a budget at the moment). I am also concerned because during the first meeting Joe and I met with her (we were asking about the budget and Joe was filling it in) and she seemed to want Joe/myself to fill the info in.
I want to help but I think it is important to show Mrs. X that she can also help herself. By showing her that she can take charge with this, it will give her more confidence to go on with any other financial problems in her life (and even non-financial problems).
Mrs. X has a lot of cancellations (of credit cards by herself or the lender) on her credit report. I think we should go over this - not to point out her cancellations but to address those that are still active.
The loan servicer does not see savings as a necessity for Mrs. X (or for anyone). It is pretty obvious that Mrs. X's budget is a "crisis-time budget" and not a realistic picture of where she was before her financial difficulties/where she would want to be. I will explain this/emphasize this to the servicer.
To Mrs.X, I think I will ask about "the last 12 months" and take that number and divide it by 12. I will also bring up the above, that I/Joe want to see her in a comfortable financial state and need to have some cushion in her budget.
Any suggestions are welcome on this topic, thanks.

NHS Week 4 

NHS Week 4:


The main issue I see with non-profit management is that there is this noticeable lack of desperation and tenacity induced by for-profit market competitiveness. If the NPO market had for-profit monetary reward and social power at stake, the entire NPO culture would dramatically transform. When you come in contact with certain for-profit institution, the best ones are capable of leaving you taken aback with what is possible when the human mind, body, and soul is working -- in concert with other possessed lives -- at it’s most rigorous and most efficient.

It is one of those truly disheartening visions, the ability to rationally, logically, imagine how a certain process, idea, industry, social structure, could be vastly different if an innovative, but plausible reframing were to occur, only to wonder if that reframing has the potential to ever exist outside of your mind. The rub really is that you are so sure the reframing/reinvention would work on x,y,z system because it has already been proven to work over and over and over again in an analogous physical dynamic that currently does exist in what we call reality.

What kills you is that the main reason for the tremendous speed and power with which the for-profit world hurtles along lies in the fact that the for-profit world has a monopoly on those certain kinds of humans who are fighting tooth and nail, kicking and screaming and choking and killing, for power, wealth, and in a sort of twisted sense, survival. In for-profit it is survival of the fittest in every sense of the phrase that has yet to be recorded. The CEO of Pepsi, he or she wants it more than most people ever want anything in their life. The CEO of McDonalds will crush you and any other man, woman, child or beast if it means keeping or losing a decimal of market share.

If one simply reads and reads more and more of the available executive/CEO/president biographic literature, one comes to the realization that these are extraordinary men and women who, perhaps because of biology and environment and socio-economic structure, could never be satisfied in the NPO world -- they have to dominate and compete at the highest level and they want to match either other wit for wit, punch for punch.

And it tears you to pieces when you think of what could be done if all these men and women, these extra-ordinary human beings, could fight it out in the world of human services. All this manpower, brainpower, willpower, thrown into selling something like sugar water and hamburgers…

Kirstin, our leader and inspiration, she is one of the exceptions to my lament. She has a vision of one day remaking the NPO landscape into its seemingly unattainable perfected image that I have presented here.

The Financial Corps as a safe haven 

I'm sure that almost everyone has seen or heard about a front-page New York Times story that ran last week about how many shady ex-subprime mortgage brokers are now getting into the business of modifying the very loans that they created. It seems quite maniacal how these characters set these mortgage "traps" and now sell their services again to help people "escape." It's like a dynamite company that sells fire extinguishers.

Many modification companies are run as simple bailout frauds, where clients pay obscene upfront fees for services that are either completely inadequate or are never rendered at all. Camille and I actually have a client who paid for such services, only to have no modification work ever done.

Of course, not all of these companies are frauds; honest firms exist that can actually achieve results. As Financial Corps, we are as skilled as are these companies, yet we supply our services free of charge. While our line of work is quickly becoming quite lucrative, our lack of fees sets us apart. Fee-based modification companies will forever have a negative stigma--will they actually save my home? Furthermore, many foreclosure clients are already low on cash. Fees that run into the thousands could be crippling for our clients.

So while the FC may be missing an opportunity to enter an untapped market, it has an unmatched advantage of not being profit-seeking. This conveys trustworthiness, determination, and genuine consideration to our clients. We are not motivated by profits; we are driven by successful outcomes and the riddance of poverty. None of our profit-seeking competitors can build this kind of trust, since their entire business comes down to a writing a check.

NHS WEEK 5 

NHS Week 5:

This week I’d like to point up the far-reaching effects of the recession. We all have heard how the for-profit market has taken a huge hit, and we know that NPO’s have been greatly undermined as well, but this week I want to bring those effects into focus, on a macro level, on a case study level. At NHS, operating hours have been cut-back, and now many Friday’s NHS is not open at all, due to furloughs that have been implemented to combat the drop in funding.

I have been selling the services of NHS at every opportunity to those that I meet, even if I am not very familiar with them – of course I have already advertised to any close friends or acquaintances that are around the age of thinking about homeownership. This week I encountered four new people who I, based on some brief, cordial exchange of words, knew were perfect candidates for the services NHS provides. When I brought up NHS, and explained fully what their utility was, all four people expressed considerable interest: I measure this by observing how many questions they ask me after I give an explanation of what NHS could do for them.

But when I told them the schedule NHS currently abides by, they all responded by explaining to me that they just could not work around that schedule. They all asked if they had hours after 5, or weekend openings. When they found out that was not available, and would not be for awhile, they seemed rather discouraged and disappointed.

Some would interpret this as laziness or lack of commitment on their behalf, but I saw, at least for three out of those four, legitimate reasons for their inability to work NHS’s schedule into their own.

Two of the people had 4+ children to care for and were single parents – in the low-income world missing even a day or two of work (which NHS would require them to do for their homeownership counseling tract) could be severely detrimental to their financial well-being. They have often been even unable to schedule doctor visits for months and months, due to the fact that they cannot afford to lose the little they gain with each day of work.

The more I run into these sort of situations, I more I think that it would be more beneficial to at least add Saturday to the schedule and cut out one of the week days. I wish there could be a study that focuses on the amount of clients lost due to the fact that there are no weekend hours for most NPO’s.

But even in a good economy this would still be difficult to implement. Now that resources are scarce and even weekdays are being cut out of the work week, adding a day on the weekend seems an idea grounded in fantasy. I was thinking of, in a good economy, how an NPO’s ideal work week/work hours would be structured to maximize its availability to BoP citizens. I came up with this, based on speaking with those who have serious difficulty working in time to visit NHS:

(This would apply to counselors and not to the other members of NHS who do not directly meet with clients) Tuesday to Friday: 4pm – 9pm; Saturday: 9am to 3pm, Sunday 9am to 2pm. If my calculations are correct, this would match closely the hours that are currently made available now, even in these current economic times.

NHS Week 6 The real reason why financial literacy programs have utterly failed 

NHS Week 6

This week had been dedicated to Financial Coaching. I have to say, after several weeks of research and development, that I am beyond convinced that financial coaching should – as quickly as humanly possible, replace what now constitutes “Financial Literacy” programs across the country. Financial literacy programs, at least what I have seen of them, are almost worthless as far as inciting behavioral change is concerned, and their value as an educational tool seems rather dubious as well.
I think the main failing of financial literacy programs stems from the fact that counselors (financial or housing or otherwise), are NOT teachers and although they are cousins to the field of teaching, that does not make them commendable classroom educators.
The issue is that financial literacy programs all rely on the classroom setting to administer their teachings, and to have this be an effective method, one would need to recruit and employ, at the very least, people with a strong background in education. In the financial literacy classes I have had the opportunity to sit in on, I have noticed the blatant lack of a dynamic presence in front of the classroom.
So we need to play to the strengths of the financial NPO’s. One on one interaction is the remedy here. It was not realistic to think that employees trained in one-on-one counseling could easily translate that into pedagogical excellence.
Secondly, financial coaching also addresses the other main difficulty facing clients that the financial literacy programs failed to account for. Often, low-income residents have not had positive experiences in classroom settings, and are already biased against sitting at a desk and listening to someone at the front of the room drone on and on.
Low-income citizens have also received plenty of negative feedback in classrooms when they were adolescents, and, again, this is the bias counselors are up against when leading financial literacy classes. So when you combine inexperienced teachers, with unwilling and scarred students, you see the results we have seen thus far.
So Forbes and I are going to be, in a small way, adding to this vision of the future that I think will exponentially improve the results seen by the financial literacy programs up to this current date.

Where are the foreclosure clients and how can we reach them? 

It's a shocking surprise that there has been a large dropoff in the number of foreclosure cases that walk through the door. What are they doing instead? The data tells us that foreclosures are continuing to occur at an increasing rate.

When I worked for a State Assemblywoman, I found that the legislative office was an important center of government services and benefits. Constituents would contact us for medical benefits, energy bill assistance, and other services. As such, we acted as a referral point, distributing contacts most often for immigration. Why not add financial coaching and foreclosure assistance to the referral list at each office?

I have two clients who at one point went to a local senator's legislative office for help, where they often received it. However, I do not know of any legislative staff that is trained to handle foreclosures. Why not place marketing materials at these offices? Why not introduce ourselves to local government officials as a referral point?

This brings me back to an earlier idea I had about placing Corps at local government offices. Likewise, legislative offices in high-foreclosure areas would also be effective.

Training Feedback 

Positives:
1. Round Robins- It gave us the opportunity to execute everything that we had learnt the previous week. great hands on practice.
2. White papers- I found it to be an important skill to develop- to be able to write effectively and concisely.
3. Movies- the 'lunch movies' turned out to be good food for thought with great takeaways and led to interesting discussions. It would be a good idea to show more documentaries related to the readings. for ex- awakening for micro-finance etc
4. Scavenger hunt- good ice breaker

Negatives:
1. Round Robins- never went over documentation with the client. only emphasized on the first visit, subsequent visits should be practiced as well. the budget that we created should have been done using bills, receipts, mortgage statements instead of just giving us the numbers.
2. Readings- it would be helpful to give an introduction about the readings, what the overarching purpose is and things that should be kept in mind when doing the readings. It'll be more beneficial if we know how these readings will fit into the work that we will be doing.
3. Discussions- it might be a good idea to give a team time to prepare for presenting any given topic- maybe make a powerpoint presentation etc to ensure that all the key points are discussed. the discussions might be more organized and effective that way. However, if the discussions are the very next day it might be a good idea to pick a person randomly to ensure that everyone prepares equally well.
4. Eco-maps- i found chalking out own personal map to be more helpful in understanding eco-maps than writing out johnnys map.

First week 

This past week was my first week placed at The Financial Clinic. I'm working with David, an attorney.

The Financial Clinic's approach to personal finance is called "Financial Coaching," which provides coaching for all matters of debt, credit, banking, and asset building, with a smaller emphasis on foreclosure. I will be seeing less foreclosure cases that I anticipated, but I still feel that the Financial Clinic's focuses are central to the BoP financial amelioration that is at the heart of the Financial Corp's model.

Camille and I should see our first foreclosure client next week! So far we've begun to assemble our case, putting together a budget, organizing the file, and creating a spreadsheet that calculates monthly payments based on varying modification schemes. When the case goes to court, we hope that the budget should show the judge exactly how much the client can afford and that the spreadsheet shows exactly which modification plans will meet those payments. The case, based on what I've seen of it so far, is a classic example irresponsible lending. There is little evidence that the client's income was ever verified by the bank.

On Friday, we met at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation for Financial Coach Training. We were introduced to the toolkit, which contains simple explanations of topics in personal finance and includes very useful worksheets to help clients accomplish goals.

My first impressions of the Financial Clinic are positive. It's a friendly environment that encourages collaboration and innovation. A weekly listserv is sent to everyone that allows for inter-office discussion about a range of topics. The business model seems to run very efficiently, too. The Financial Clinic offers training and materials to other organizations (as in Friday at Bed Sty Restoration) to expand its teachings and reach more people than it would otherwise be able to with just its staff. This scalable approach has allowed a staff of 12 to reach 4000 clients.

First week Idea for primary focus 

First week of Training:
Much of what I will say we have already discussed on thursday but I believe an emphasis on the documents and material analysis will help. It is important to understanding all the terms of a mortgage and where to locate everything on an actual mortgage, tax returns, bank statements and any and all necessary documentation. The case study visit practice is good and important, but it should be more of a conclusive practice, once all information is confidently comprehended.

West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center (WBHNRC) - First Week 

WBHNRC has several different departments. Josh and I will be working with Xavier who deals with foreclosure prevention. He assists clients with budgeting, refinancing and load modification. If the client has received court notification for foreclosure he collects all the required documentation and refers the case to New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). The other departments include: social services- deals with proving food stamps etc, eviction - deals with going to court etc to prevent eviction and housing- deals with tenant and landlord disputes. We will get the opportunity to sit with all departments to better understand all the services that WBHNRC provides to its clients.
Later on in the week Xavier gave me a current case to read over to better understand his work.
The case that I was acquainted with was about a client who had formerly undergone a repayment plan and is about to default. The client file included the mortgage, the budget, and all previous communication with NYLAG. Xavier is still waiting to receive more documentation from the client.

06/22/09 - 06/26/09 NHS 

My first week at NHS has found me dealing alot with credit and financial budgeting. In addition, the idea of "coaching" has been stressed to me. I know that a main focus of the FC is to help in the foreclosure aspect of poverty, but i believe that a broader "financial coaching" aspect should be implemented, where counselors coach clients, over time, to be improve credit, create a budget, and build savings etc. Unlike foreclosure, where the material is complicated and hard to understand for clients, and where the FC counselors have to do alot of the work for the clients, the idea of credit and budgeting are easy to understand. So, instead of doing most of the work for the client, we should instead train, and provide the client with assistance and the material necessary to have him or her do the job himself. We could supplement the "coaching" by giving, and going through with clients short and concise powerpoint manuals that teach material on credit etc (the NHS has given us a couple of powerpoint manuals that really explain material such as credit, well).

First Week @ TFC 

This past week (June 22-June 26) was my first week at The Financial Clinic.
Overall, I have a positive impression of the TFC and its employees. David and Mae (and others) all make this office a "relaxed" environment.
Joe and I received a very large client case - that we worked on Tuesday and Wednesday. I feel familiar with the client's story and financial situation. David called the client and left a voicemail on Wednesday - we should be seeing him this week.

On Friday, Joe and I attended a Financial Coaching training session at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Center. I thought this was extremely beneficial. Also, we got to keep the training booklets -to study and refer to. I think it is important to realize that there are more facets to financial coaching/counseling than foreclosure. We reviewed debt, credit, banking, and asset building.

I would recommend that everyone review/learn the basics of debt, credit, banking, asset building, and taxes and how we can apply those to coaching low and moderate-income individuals.