Every time I set up a workshop, I’m always nervous no one will show. Here at Baltimore CASH, schools, housing organizations, and other nonprofits or partners will contact us to coordinate a financial education workshop for their community. I provide them with flyers for the workshop but the recruitment to have community members or residents attend is on them. As you could imagine, it’s a bit of let down when no one shows. But when you have a packed room with attentive listeners, it’s totally worth all the work and any frustrations!
We recently held a workshop with At Jacob’s Well, Inc., a transitional housing nonprofit. Since their clients are homeless and mentally ill, I was worried there may be a few challenges during the workshop. I had not dealt with an audience like this in previous financial workshops and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go… The coordinator was setting up food right around the time we were supposed to start the workshop. We were now going to start almost 30 minutes late! I am a person that likes being on time and I like sticking to a plan. I certainly didn’t want to rush through the workshop, which was on credit- definitely our most content-heavy workshop. More importantly I knew there would be a lot of questions… Maybe questions that the facilitator or I wouldn’t know how to answer? Maybe they were too specific?
All of my scrambling thoughts came to a halt a few minutes after we started. The workshop was a packed house! The attendees were so engaged! Several of them were taking extensive notes, which I had yet to experience at a workshop. They were so polite, waited for appropriate times to ask questions, and were willingly sharing their own experiences and knowledge to help others learn as well! They loved the Good Credit Game and other activities we did. The rest of the workshop went smoothly. Even with us starting and ending late, I couldn’t be happier! We had 12 participants; the most I have had at a workshop!!
I learn something new every time we have a workshop whether it’s from the facilitator or from the participants themselves. People are amazing. Financial education is amazing! Though I may have been a little flustered at the beginning, we got such positive feedback from the group that I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
This is what it’s all about right? Knowing that our work with Financial Opportunity Corps is making any impact it can on the way people think about their finances? I heard several participants mention different resources or techniques learned that they were going to take advantage of after the workshop, including financial coaching. I am hopeful that a few workshop participants will become coaching clients to further their financial education and dreams.
-Lauren Stadnick, Baltimore CASH Campaign AmeriCorps VISTA
The FOC VISTA and Fellow Blog! 