By Carmanise London | Program Manager
In May, RISE provided its workplace financial education program Common Cents to employees at Delta Materials. Over a four-session class, attendees learned to better manage their finances through a series of exercises that included reviewing their banking statements, writing down their expenses, pulling their credit reports, and creating a spending plan for the upcoming month.
On the first day of class, RISE staff asked employees how they felt about their current financial situation, most of the answers included being overwhelmed or just making it, however on the last day answers shifted to being encouraged, more confident, and more optimistic in their financial situations. Another win for RISE and Delta Materials was that this class was quite diverse, some attendees had financial knowledge, and some had not been exposed to finances in this manner. During one activity, the class divided into various groups and had to create a $0 budget based on the scenario provided. It was great hearing the various perspectives on how to spend their money and the discussion on needs vs wants within each group. Each group set aside money for savings and emergencies.
RISE staff was also informed by participants that they opened savings accounts, stopped buying lunch and brought lunch and lastly had conversations their significant others on how they work together to create and maintain spending plans.
Common Cents is a workplace financial education program that teaches people the proper way to manage their money. Employee financial stress can result in decreased productivity, higher rates of tardiness, absenteeism and turnover, higher healthcare costs, and wage garnishment. One in five employees has financial problems significant enough to affect productivity, and those employees will spend many hours trying to resolve those problems while on the job. Providing workers with the tools they need to improve their financial stability benefits both employees and their employers. Common Cents curriculum topics include banking, budgeting, debt management, spending strategies, and retirement planning.
By Shelia Terrell | Project Leader
By Karen Madlock | Operations Manager GMFEC
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser