Winter/Spring Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2020
A note from our Executive Director...
Dear Friends,
I joined My Money Workshop a year and a half ago and it has been a pleasure seeing how we have evolved as an organization in such short time. We welcomed new volunteer instructors and 21 new client partners! One of those new partners is the Women’s Prison Association.
You can read about our latest programs with their AJRT programs to the right. Most impressive of all, we hosted 280 workshops – the most workshops delivered in a single year. We served over 3,300 participants at these workshops and participants continue to say our workshops are highly effective in increasing their confidence to manage their finances.
Our Tenth Anniversary celebration kick-off last October was also a great achievement! Thank you to all our donors, volunteers, and friends who joined us that evening to celebrate ten years of success. You can see pictures from the night and learn more about our Tenth Anniversary Campaign here
Read on to learn about our plans for the future.
Warmest Regards!
Gineyda Diaz
Executive Director
SUPPORTING WOMEN AFTER PRISON...
In October, we began a partnership with the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) in New York City to deliver quarterly workshops to its Accelerated Job-Readiness Training (AJRT) program. WPA works with women at all stages of criminal justice involvement. They promote alternatives to incarceration and help women avoid arrest or recidivism by making positive changes in their lives. My Money Workshop has delivered two cohorts so far at the WPA Brooklyn. The AJRT program offers job readiness training for participants and they receive a stipend once they complete the program.
The Prep Work
We first held a Discovery session with a few of the WPA participants. Going in we knew the harsh financial impacts incarceration and unemployment could have on an individual’s life. The WPA Workforce Development & Employment Services team helped us understand that many women may have experienced extended periods of unemployment, and some may have spent time in jail or prison, contributing to gaps in knowledge related to budgeting and saving. We knew our curriculum needed to engage the women in multiple ways to help them build a great foundation.
Gineyda worked with several volunteers, Swati Shah, Lee Flanagan, Michael Casper, and Rick Fishkin to develop a version of a Foundation for Financial Success program that was tailored for these women.
BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS
Our first session included a chair yoga exercise, which was delivered by our partners at Exhale to Inhale, a nonprofit that supports victims of abuse through yoga. This innovative solution was key for this pilot program and ensured the women felt comfortable and not judged for their past experiences. After that session, we moved to our Vision Board exercise where we discussed the women’s goals for the future.
By the end of the last workshop, the women were whizzing through rounds of Financial Jeopardy and it was a sight to behold! Thank you to all the volunteers and instructors who helped make these programs a success. We look forward to our continued success with WPA and its AJRT program.
TRANSFORMING WHILE DELIVERING RESULTS
Our Tenth Anniversary has prompted us to ask very real questions about where we want to take our organization. With the support of our community of friends, donors, and volunteers, My Money Workshop has served over 20,000 participants at over 1,000 workshops since our inception! Our goal for the next three years is to double that number. Yet we realize that our mission is not only about the number of people we want to reach. Our mission is also about how we can best reach those people.
For 2020 and beyond, we are committed to focusing our mission while continuing to deliver the best in class results. We have developed a three-year strategic plan that will allow us to focus on what we do best and highlight the opportunities for success. Ultimately, this plan will ensure our vision for financial literacy to be woven into the family dynamic.
We want to continue to equip our youth with the tools they need to make informed decisions into adulthood. We also want parents to feel comfortable having conversations about money with their children.
Everyone that learns about our mission says “This is great! I wish I had a class like this in high school.” Or “my child NEEDS this!” and yet we find that most teens still don’t know the very basics of money management. A recent TD Ameritrade poll found that 60% of teens learn their habits from their parents. We hope to bridge the gap between what families know about money management and what they share with each other.
We can only achieve this goal together. We welcome you to join us on this very audacious mission. Commit to showing your support by making a donation today, sharing our stories, and connecting us with your local schools and community organizations.
A DEEPER CONNECTION WITH PARENTS
At these programs, we listened to parents’ concerns and collected data that will support our new curriculum. If you know of a parent group that would benefit from learning how to infuse financial literacy into the family dynamics, please email us at partnerships@mymoneworkshop.org.
A CALL FOR INSTRUCTORS
In order to achieve our goals, we will need not only the support from you, our friends, donors, and ambassadors. We will need an expanded corps of volunteers that will ensure we can meet the demand of our expansion.
In 2019, we brought on a dedicated staff person to manage all aspects of outreach, on-boarding, and day-to-day management of our volunteers. By the end of the year, the number of active volunteer instructors nearly doubled and by the time of this newsletter’s printing, nearly 60 instructors will either be active or in the process of becoming active! Plus, we have added additional volunteer opportunities for those individuals who want to offer support in areas like marketing, social media, HR, and data entry.
This growth in volunteers ensured that over 3,300 participants received the tools and skills to begin positive financial journeys.
If you or anyone you know would like to volunteer, please email Sweta Vikram, our Community and Communications Manager at sweta@mymoneyworkshop.org.
JOIN OUR TENTH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN
My Money Workshop has done so much in the last ten years to educate the communities we serve and we want to do more! Please join us as a one-time or monthly donor to ensure our success for years to come.