In partnership with United Way, Goodwill Industries of Central Florida is proud to announce the Money $ense Program. The program consists of a series of four FREE Financial Literacy classes to be offered once each week for four consecutive weeks. Each week class builds on the previous week information. The classes are two hours per week and the instructors are teaching this class in the community. The classes are being conducted in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.
The classes provide information on the following topics:
- Banking Basics
- Spending and Saving Plan
- Tracking your Money
- Credit/Debit
The class will also discuss Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), making better financial choices, how credit affects employment, credit cards, bank fees and grocery shopping among other subjects.
These classes use a different paradigm to teach finance to individuals. We use Financial Socialwork which looks at the behavior, attitude, and habits of individuals. We want to make people aware of how they have manage money in the past and whether the decisions they made were the best for their families and will assist them to achieve their future goals. The instructors’ goal is to create sustainable, long-term financial behavioral change in the participants who attend the class
The model
- Motivates men and women to choose to deal with money in a different way.
- Teaches how to anticipate, prepare for and cope with setbacks and disappointments.
- Provides the information and insight to make knowledge based choices and decisions.
- Supports change with a clear “Change process”
- Focuses on success with “Five Specific Steps to Success.”
- Integrates validation, recognition and encouragement.
- Incorporates a self-assessment process which contributes to growing sense of self, self-worth and self-confidence.
- Expands self-awareness and personal growth as well as increasing financial knowledge.
The outcomes of the Money $ense Program are as follows:
- Developing and using a Monthly Spending Plan
- Opening and using a bank account
- Establishing and/or achieving credit awareness
The program also includes the opportunity to participate in a one on one personal follow along for all your personal financial issues.
The Money $ense classes are interactive and engaging. The clients are provided handouts, exercises and printed material on a variety of different areas. We have engaging discussions with the clients on money management and while there are no right or wrong answers we want to make the individual think about the decisions they implement when it comes to their resources.
We invite all individuals to attend the class whether they are young or old, rich or poor, male or female because everyone could use help managing their money.
For more information on this initiative, please visit the Goodwill Community Service page.
