CFEE Guidebook

12 BUILDING FINANCIAL CAPABILITY THROUGH FINANCIAL COACHING data on how the workshops affected student financial behavior over time. The intent of our new coaching model was to help students build financial capability by offering a set of coordinated services, including one-on-one financial coaching, financial educa- tion resources, and career-readiness training. The program offered financial coaching with a team of three part-time professionals who met with students on a regular basis over the course of a semester. The main goals of the coaching process were to assist students to improve financial health in four major areas:  ` increasing savings  ` increasing personal income  ` reducing debt  ` improving or establishing credit These areas are also the ones where students face vulnerabilities that can lead to disruption of college attendance. When students signed up to participate in the Money Smart Forum, they were assigned to work with a coach, with whom they would sub- sequently meet approximately twice a month over the course of a semester. The coaching program was open to any student at our college; we also worked with many programs on campus that served groups of students who were low income, disadvantaged, or at risk. Most of our students were pursuing academic degrees in Career and Technical Education, but we also served a large number of students in noncredit programs. Evaluation Methods and Metrics The program was structured around helping students to set measurable financial goals and then giving them the tools to reach their goals. We then evaluated our participant results based on a set of defined metrics (see appendix 5). To track our outcomes, we chose to use a coaching platform, Change Machine (www. change-machine.org) , supported by the Finan- cial Clinic, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to asset building for low-income communities. The Change Machine allowed our coaches to maintain a coaching record for each student and monitor the status of their goals. Every year we established overall benchmarks for the program, and then we reported on our achievement of those goals to the college and to funders. From 2015 to 2019, we exceeded our goals each year. For 2018-2019, the average savings achieved was $1,642, the average amount of debt reduction was $2,453, and the average credit score improvement was 37 points. Par- ticipants had an average of five to six meetings with a coach. These outcomes were signifi- cantly better than other community coaching programs mainly because we were able to work with students over a longer period than other programs typically require. 6 Evidence previously noted, including data from the SparkPoint Center at Skyline College, has demonstrated that there is a positive connection between financial capability and a student’s ability to succeed in college, in terms of continuing to enroll and to graduate. 7 Addressing the Unique Economic Needs of Community College Students Community colleges have a higher percentage of nontraditional students than four-year col- leges, as well as a different demographic profile. It is therefore important to consider how these differences will frame a coaching program. Community college students are older (the average age on a national basis is 26-27 years),