CFEE Guidebook

4 BUILDING FINANCIAL CAPABILITY THROUGH FINANCIAL COACHING THE FINANCIAL COACHING IMPERATIVE Community colleges pride themselves on offering economic opportunity to students through expanded access, equity, and inclu- sion. This includes helping nontraditional and underserved students gain access to higher education through favorable admission poli- cies, low tuition, and flexible course schedules. It also includes offering an array of certificate and workforce programs to enable students to gain important skills and credentials to qualify for new career opportunities. Yet the typical community college student is also likely to face an array of economic roadblocks that may easily derail their pursuit of a degree. These barriers stem from the fact that many students come from low-income households where they were never exposed to the basics of personal finance or the idea of building financial security. This lack of basic knowledge, combined with economic disadvan- tage, means that a large number of community college attendees often make choices that negatively affect their chances of staying in school and completing a degree. Compounding this problem is the fact that many young people in the US never had person- al finance education at any point in their edu- cational careers, from grade school to college. Of those community college students who eventually complete a degree or credential, most will leave college without the requisite skills to manage their daily finances or to make financial decisions leading to accumulation of wealth. Recognizing these challenges, the Money Smart Forum coaching program was launched at Westchester Community College in 2014, with a goal of improving student financial health by offering students one-on-one financial coaching, along with other tools and resources to help them gain skills around personal financial management. Our objective was to help students build financial capability, which encompasses the knowledge, habits, and decision-making skills that individuals must acquire to manage their personal finances and attain economic well- being over the course of their lives. As students build financial capability, they gain informa- tion needed to make smart money management decisions, and then learn how to transform their knowledge into practice. In the five years of the program, we worked with more than 600 financially vulnerable stu- dents to help them acquire the building blocks of personal financial management. Over this time, we collected data, insights, and success stories that validate all the ways that students can benefit from the process of financial coaching. In addition to the hurdles students face, the severe societal and financial disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic have starkly highlighted the need for better economic security in low-income populations and com- munities of color. Community colleges need to position themselves to meet these challenges.