Financial and Legal Training

Transcription

1 Financial and Legal Training Overview Financial and legal knowledge plays an important role in the life and well-being of service members, veterans, and military families. Predatory lending and other pitfalls are increasingly common, and many in the military community lack the financial and legal fluency to effectively combat these issues. Even routine financial and legal matters can present great difficulties to those without a thorough understanding of their available options While the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) and other programs are designed to provide separating service members with the training and knowledge required to operate effectively in the civilian world, they have proven largely ineffective insofar as the areas of finance and law are concerned. In large part, this can be attributed to the extensive and all-encompassing nature of the programs, which can unsettle and overwhelm students. As a result, much of the information conveyed during the program is not retained. Months or years after separation, the military community may run into financial or legal problems without the knowledge to help themselves or awareness of the resources available to assist them. Current service members, too, can face financial and legal difficulties; they frequently exhibit similar gaps in knowledge. This Community Solution is designed to ensure that all existing financial and legal services in the community are working together to provide effective security and counsel for service members, veterans, and military families. There are four steps to the integration of financial and legal education into community programs: 1) Recruit a Volunteer Team; 2) Identify Existing Resources; 3) Connect and Learn; and 4) Develop and Execute a Training Program. Is it being done already? The gap analysis of your community will give you an idea of what, if any, services already exist. Most likely, many of these programs will have been designed for the general public will not offer any specialized advice the military community. Members of the military community could still benefit from training, education and awareness. If you still are not sure, ask the leading service organizations in your community what activities they know of in the financial and legal realm for community members.

2 Step-by-Step Implementation Step 1: Recruit a Volunteer Team Volunteers are extremely important to the success of your effort, particularly if your organization or action team lacks a strong core of motivated workers. They provide valuable labor, and are one of the best and most effective ways to defray the costs of a program. The effective recruitment of volunteers can be a difficult task, but it should be one of the foremost priorities of your initiative. The steps below should provide you with some guidance as you begin your recruitment: Throughout this document, you will see Volunteer Opportunities. Volunteer Opportunities: You will notice Volunteer Opportunities throughout this document. These are designed to provide a basic overview of a potential volunteer position within the initiative. You may want or need to adjust the volunteer listing depending on the demands of your specific community. Local Organizations: Local veteran and military service organizations, enlisted and officers' spouses clubs, faith-based groups, and many other organizations may be able to provide valuable human resources and input through volunteering. Schools: Local schools are also valuable sources of volunteers. High school and college students are often willing to participate in community initiatives for little or no pay. o Ask local high schools, universities, and colleges if you can place recruitment fliers on their campuses. Many also have specific websites, bulletin boards, and newsletters you may be able to incorporate into your recruitment strategy. Experience: This Community Solution is extensive and will require a solid volunteer base in order to stay organized and effective. Consider recruiting an experienced volunteer such as a local Military Spouse Fellow to lead your volunteers. They have a wealth of information regarding financial counseling and can help create effective trainings. See Additional Resources at the end of this document for more information regarding Military Spouse Fellows. Volunteer Opportunities Title: Volunteer Coordinator Task: Recruit, train, and coordinate the efforts of volunteers and trainers. Attributes: Articulate, organized, and proactive Who: Consider a student who is a veteran, member of a local financial literacy or legal organization, someone who works in the veteran space, or a Military Spouse Fellow. Hours: over three to five months

3 Step 2: Identify Existing Resources It is important to work with your community to determine where education and trainings are needed. Forming relationships with these service organizations will prove beneficial identifying gaps and figuring out how to fill them. The first step in forming these relationships is deciding with which organizations you will connect. Try to choose organizations that can advance your mission. In addition to forming partnerships with established organizations in the community, you should work to link existing programs to your initiative. The following resources are available in most communities and should provide you with a few places to start. For more detailed information, please see Additional Resources: IRS Programs: IRS programs such as Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA), Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE), and the Armed Forces Tax Council (AFTC) offer free tax preparation to low-income individuals, the elderly, and military members, respectively. Local Programs: Many communities offer free financial literacy programs. Many communities have free financial education courses. Assess your community and work with any available programs to better educate the service members, veterans, and military families about financial issues. o o Jump$tart is a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards and educational resources. Jump$tart strives to prepare youth for life-long successful financial decision-making. Check for a Jump$tart chapter near your community. Local banks, credit unions, and financial planners also provide a good source of information. Contact these local organizations and assess their interest in participating in your effort. Legal Services: The American Bar Association (ABA) offers a state-by-state directory of legal assistance offices, legal aid, pro bono organizations, lawyer referrals, information services, and military specific programs. Use the ABA Homefront to locate and identify available programs in your community. Social Services: Social services such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be included in your assessment. An important aspect of financial and legal education is knowledge about available social programs. Online Resources: The advent of the internet made online portals and resources an important component of financial and legal education. o 2-1-1: Organized by United Way, the Information and Referral Service provides free and confidential help with food, housing, employment, health care, counseling, and more. o National Resource Directory: a website that connects wounded warriors, Service Members, Veterans, their families, and caregivers to programs and services that

4 o support them. It provides access to services and resources at the national, state and local levels to support recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration. Warrior Gateway: Warrior Gateway is a non-profit whose mission is to connect individuals in the military, veterans, and their families with federal, state, and local government programs as well as non-profit organizations in their local communities. Step 3: Connect and Learn Once you have identified a list of organizations and programs in the financial and legal realm, it is time to connect and learn from these services. You want to find out what kinds of financial and legal programs they have, if any. If they do, find out if they target the military community in their outreach and marketing. If they do not target this population, would they be willing to work with you and your volunteers to provide military-specific services in the future? Volunteer Opportunities Title: Relationship Manager Task: Research potential partner organizations and conduct initial outreach; prepare preliminary partnership materials. Attributes: Outgoing, articulate, and organized. Who: Consider a student veteran, a member of a local financial literacy or legal organization, or someone who works in the veteran space. Hours: over four to six months Step 4: Develop and Execute Training Program As you begin developing and executing your financial and legal training program, stay focused on the initial goal: the education of the local community about available financial and legal services. Creating trainings around these services will help fill the gaps in financial and legal education among the military community. Fill Common Education Gaps: For most programs, there are specific areas where the public and military community may lack knowledge. Your program should attempt to fill these specific areas. As you develop your program, consider the following: o For social services such TANF and SNAP, explain how individuals can apply for and receive benefits. o Incorporate existing programs such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation s (FDIC) Money Smart, the programs offered by Doorway to Dreams (D2D), and Consumer Action's training modules. o Predatory lending is both a legal and financial issue that is increasingly affecting service members, veterans, and military families.

5 Consider incorporating predatory lending awareness into your efforts. o Your program should emphasize those programs that are specific to the military community. Location: There are many important factors to consider when setting the location for the training, the most important being the venue and the duration over which the activities will take place. It is important to secure a venue in the early planning stages. The size of the facility will dictate precisely how many participants will be able to attend. It also helps to have a set location before reaching out to organizations and programs, as it demonstrates a high degree of commitment and provides a firm setting which they can visualize. Many facilities are willing to donate several hours of use for charitable purposes; try to develop a list of medium- and large-scale venues in the area that might be amenable to hosting the training. Some of the most common venues for this type of event are high schools, colleges and universities, hotels, and military bases. When negotiating with the venue, be sure to ask whether the facility will provide tables, chairs, projectors, and other materials you might require. Of equal importance is deciding the duration of the training. It is generally better to set the curriculum first. Should you end up with too much or too little time in the venue, you can adjust the lesson plans accordingly while still ensuring you are able to hit the high notes. That said, the specific curriculum should provide a general sense of the time necessary for the training, and you should include this estimate in any discussions with potential venues. Be sure to account for set-up, clean-up, and other maintenance tasks when discussing potential timeframes. Recruit Trainers: For in-person or online sessions, someone will be required to host the trainings and answer questions. Use your volunteer and community coalition network to find people who are qualified to answer questions and teach about their subject. If there is no one available, make a brochure, PowerPoint, or online tutorial that conveys the material without the use of a teacher. Again, see if any Military Spouse Fellows would be interested in this volunteer position. Scheduling: Consider the resources available to your community when deciding how to schedule the training. Perhaps they can occur biweekly, with a rotating schedule of topics. If online, record sessions and have them available around the clock; you should also schedule live webinars for those who may have questions. Incentivize Participation: Now that the trainings have been organized, it is time to think about those who will benefit. Providing incentives for people to give these trainings a try can be a powerful motivation. Something as simple as providing child care during the trainings (if in-person) or entry into a raffle for a service provided by a community partner (for example, a one-hour personal financial consultant, or someone to do their taxes) if they attend an online training or download a seminar can be great motivators. Leverage these incentives to increase your recruiting power. Awareness and Outreach: Raising public awareness of your effort is extremely important to its success.

6 You must reach a broad audience to ensure that financial and legal education reaches the entirety of the military community. Consider the following ways to raise awareness of your programs: o An easy way to advertise the trainings is by creating and distributing pamphlets, fliers, and other handouts. Effective literature varies widely in content, but generally material for public dissemination should present a clear picture of the topic (in this case, the importance of financial and legal literacy and available services). Stress the reasons financial and legal literacy should be a priority, and emphasize the availability of services within the community as well as the additional trainings you have created. o Though similar in nature to fliers, brochures should provide a more in-depth look at the trainings and other available services. Compile a list of high-impact locations where you can distribute your brochures. It may be helpful to coordinate with social workers or veteran service organizations to find events where your message will have greatest leverage: town halls meetings, gatherings on military installations, the meetings of veterans' groups, doctors' offices, VA hospitals, university campuses, and so on. o Public Service Announcements are among the most effective methods of raising public awareness of training programs. Television and radio announcements can reach entire communities at once, and are more likely to grasp and retain the attention of the populace at large than handouts and brochures. o Local media such as television and radio stations are perfect avenues for the PSAs you have acquired or designed. Approach the local stations in your area and see if they are willing to donate airtime for your message. Call or visit in person, and be sure to speak with someone in a position of authority. Again, use the pre-designed elevator speech to begin and support your statements with additional information as necessary. o Use previous successful campaigns as models for your own effort. America Saves and Military Saves both have campaigns for financial literacy. Use these and other campaigns to further raise awareness around this topic and your trainings. See Additional Resources for more information. Volunteer Opportunities Title: Content Coordinator Task: Research training and marketing information and compile it in a succinct manner for placement in various training materials. Attributes: Articulate and well-organized. Who: Consider a student who is a veteran, member of a local financial literacy or legal organization, or someone familiar with the military community. Hours: over one to two months Title: Training and Marketing Material Designer Task: Design the various documents for training and marketing. Attributes: Creative, organized, and motivated. Who: Consider a graphic design student, a designer from the general community, or someone with design experience familiar with the military community. Hours: over one month

7 Volunteer Opportunities Title: Marketing Manager Task: Find and utilize marketing opportunities for the trainings. Attributes: Creative, organized, and motivated. Who: Consider a marketing student and individuals with advertising experience. Hours: over three to five months Title: Financial and Legal Literacy Trainers Task: Lead trainings on a regular basis. Attributes: Leadership qualities, an outgoing nature, and excellent communications skills. Who: Consider a professional with legal or financial experience. Military connections are preferred. Hours: For the duration of the program, hours a week Measure of Success Measuring the success of your efforts is important. The ability to track the change created will motivate your trainers and volunteers. Even more important to your ultimate success is identifying what worked and what was ineffective. Future efforts will rely on the lessons they can glean from your steps, so it is important to provide an objective evaluation of the process. Depending on your available resources, it can be difficult to accurately measure the success of your financial and legal education programs. The most simple and most effective way to do so is through surveys. In addition to surveying, you may wish to measure your success in other ways. Here are some supplemental methods you can use: Assess Training Materials: Compare the amount of material disseminated during the training period with the amount of material created. Though not a rigorous measurement of public need, doing so provides valuable information about your literature and distribution methods. Were some community services disproportionately of interest? Were some types of training more commonly utilized than others? This information will allow you to better focus successive training efforts. Social Media and Web Analytics: Analyze the success of your web presence, if applicable, by using tools like Google PageRank. If you decided to incorporate a social media aspect into your trainings, be sure to take stock of the digital footprint of your efforts. How many fans/likes/comments did your page receive on Facebook? How many tweets/retweets were created about your efforts? Such data can provide a fast-and-loose idea of the growth and size of public awareness of your trainings. Track Media Coverage: Note any coverage of your public awareness efforts by the local media, such as newspaper articles, mention of your efforts in the local news, etc. This should provide a sense of the presence achieved by your efforts in the financial and legal realms.

8 Additional Resources 2-1-1: Organized by United Way, the Information and Referral Service provides free and confidential help with food, housing, employment, health care, counseling, and more. America Saves: America Saves is a national campaign involving more than 1,000 non-profit, government, and corporate groups that encourages individuals and families to save money and build personal wealth. The organization provides free financial tools, savings services, advice, and resources that help Americans from every income level take the steps needed to take charge of their finances and manage money more effectively. Action Training Modules: Consumer Action is a nonprofit organization that has championed the rights of underrepresented consumers nationwide since Throughout its history, the organization has dedicated its resources to promoting financial literacy and advocating for consumer rights in both the media and before lawmakers to promote economic justice for all. Department of Housing and Urban Development Predatory Lending Guide: Over the last several years, the U.S. has made enormous progress in expanding access to capital for previously under served borrowers. Despite this progress, however, too many families are suffering today because of a growing incidence of abusive practices in a segment of the mortgage lending market. Predatory mortgage lending practices strip borrowers of home equity and threaten families with foreclosure, destabilizing the very communities that are beginning to enjoy the fruits of our nation s economic success. IRS Programs: VITA, CTE, AFTC, and other programs offered by the IRS provide substantial benefits to low-income and military-affiliated individuals. Jump$tart State Coalition: The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. It is a coalition an organization of organizations that share an interest in advancing financial literacy among students in pre-kindergarten through college. Today, Jump$tart is a partnership of about 150 national organizations and entities from the corporate, non-profit, academic, government and other sectors. Military Saves: Military Saves is a social marketing campaign to persuade, motivate, and encourage military families to save money every month, and to convince leaders and organizations to be aggressive in promoting automatic savings.

9 The campaign is a growing network of organizations and individuals committed to helping and supporting military members and their loved ones build personal savings arsenals to provide for their immediate and long term financial needs. Military Spouse Fellowship Program: The FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship Program gives military spouses the opportunity to earn a career-enhancing credential the Accredited Financial Counselor certificate while providing financial counseling and education to the military community. The fellowship covers the costs associated with completing the AFC training and testing. Money Smart Program: Money Smart is a comprehensive financial education curriculum designed to help low- and moderate-income individuals outside the financial mainstream enhance their financial skills and create positive banking relationships. Money Smart has reached over 2.75 million consumers since Research shows that the curriculum can positively influence how consumers manage their finances, and these changes are sustainable in the months after the training. National Resource Directory: The National Resource Directory is a website that connects wounded warriors, Service Members, Veterans, their families, and caregivers to programs and services that support them. It provides access to services and resources at the national, state and local levels to support recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration. Warrior Gateway: Warrior Gateway is a non-profit whose mission is to connect individuals in the military, veterans, and their families with federal, state, and local government programs as well as non-profit organizations in their local communities.