Breaking the cycle of crisis starts with a literacy program
Thursday May 31, 2007, Tallahassee
Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning Tahissh Bond recalls the difficult days when, as a teenager with nine siblings and no electricity at home, her family had to go to bed early and pretend they were camping out.
“Those were rough times,” Bond, a case worker with the Emergency Assistance program at Catholic Charities in Tallahassee says. “But when I tell that story to my clients, they are no longer intimidated, and that’s when they feel they can trust me.”
This connection with clients is helping Bond teach financial literacy skills to individuals in dire straits more effectively. Those who come to the Catholic Charities office in need of quick emergency assistance, such as money for rent or utilities, now have to go trough a one-hour session of financial budgeting before they can be aided .
“Some are embarrassed to be in a situation where their electricity or phone has been cut off, and when you tell them that they have to go through a financial budgeting class, they feel even more uncomfortable,” Bond says. “But when they realize they are not the only ones juggling with bills and money, that it could happen to anyone, they don’t feel so bad anymore, and that’s when they are ready to learn.”
From learning how to balance a checkbook to the basic survival principles involved with earning,spending, saving and investing, the program is designed to assist clients in learning basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs.
“We are trying to break the cycle of crisis,” says Debra Herman, CC Tallahassee’s Regional Director. “And we want to give clients more than emergency aid. We want to give them a hand-up.”
The financial budgeting class is part of a new education program being implemented at the CC Emergency Assistance Program. Life skills and ESL classes are also being scheduled in the CC agenda.
“We believe in giving clients the tools and education to help them become self-sufficient and financially independent,” Herman said. “We are working in collaboration with other agencies in the community in order to become more effective and accomplish a common goal.”
The education component aims at reducing the number of emergency crises in the region, which in turn may help CC in its efforts to contribute with Catholic Charities USA’s ambitious campaign to reduce poverty in the USA by 50 percent by the year 2020.
The number of Americans living in poverty in 2001 grew significantly to 32.9 million people. That is nearly one out of every eight people in the United States, reports Catholic Charities USA, based in Alexandria, VA.
“Poverty is a social and moral concern that affects us all," Herman said. “It threatens the health and economic well being of our families and our nation as a whole.”