CFEE Guidebook

25 BUILDING FINANCIAL CAPABILITY THROUGH FINANCIAL COACHING The amount of coaching that individual stu- dents need will vary greatly, depending on their goals and financial situation. Some students may have a simple issue they wish to discuss and may need only one meeting. Others may want to gain skills, like saving money or creat- ing a household budget, and they may benefit from two to four coaching sessions to get them on track. Other students with more serious issues may need a number of sessions over time. The more complicated the issue, the more time it will take to help themmake progress. In general, for students who are working to reduce debt or improve a credit score, it may require five to ten meetings over a period of several months. If a student is in an urgent situation, where they are on the verge of defaulting or need to renegotiate debt with their creditors, coaching may not be appropriate and they would be better served with a professional credit counsel- or. There are many nonprofit credit-counseling organizations around the country, but we recommend only those organizations that are certified by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This will assure that the credit counseling organization has been vetted and has a sound reputation. One of the leading organizations in this field is GreenPath Financial Wellness (https://www. greenpath.com/) , which has offices around the country and in many communities. Coaching Progress and Frequency Financial coaching can be structured to accom- modate students with a range of circumstances, from those with a one-time question to those with more complex financial problems. In the Money Smart program, we had students who came for only one or two appointments, but many students had ten to twelve meetings over the course of the academic year. On average, students in the Money Smart programmet with a coach five or six times. As can be expected, there is a direct correlation between the number of meetings a student has and the progress they make. Students who attended more than five meetings made more improvement (in terms of financial goals, amount of savings, debt repaid, or credit im- proved) than those with fewer than five meet- ings. Across the board, the greater number of meetings a student had, the higher the amount of savings accumulated or debt paid down. Some students participated in our program for more than a year and were able to make impres- sive progress. Nonetheless, students can benefit from just one meeting or a few meetings. Flexibility Since most students must balance their work schedules and academic courses, the coaching hours offered need to be flexible. The coaching schedule for the Money Smart Forum was de- termined by the times that students were most likely to be available to meet, roughly between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The most sought-after appointments were around the lunch hour, between noon and 2:00 p.m., because many students had classes in the morning and then went to work in the afternoon. Because a number of community college students work during the day, it is helpful to offer coaching during the evening, if possible. We offered evening appointments one night per week, between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., which proved to be invaluable for a number of stu- dents who had full-time jobs. For students who had difficulty scheduling an in-person meeting, the coach could substitute with a phone call or Skype session. We discovered, however, that phone calls or Skype meetings were more effec- tive if a participant had already established an in-person relationship with the coach.