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Teaching Financial Skills for Future Success

Changing behavior has long been a focus of Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and a measurement of their success. Behavior change couldn’t be more critical for one group of program participants, however – the incarcerated.

The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services provides programs to help soon-to-be-released inmates transition out of prison in a positive way. Those programs are based on national studies that show that re-entry programs addressing the full array of life problems and focusing on behavioral change are most successful in reducing recidivism rates.

Extension’s family and consumer sciences agents from across Virginia are partnering with the state to teach financial management skills to inmates. “This program makes education available to a hard-to-reach audience and provides an opportunity to conduct intervention programming,” says Karen Gehrt, associate director for family and consumer sciences. “We can have an impact at a very fundamental level by helping people avoid the pitfalls of backsliding once they are released from prison.”

In Greensville County, Extension agent Amy Moore works with transition specialists at Greensville Correctional Center to teach inmates how to spend responsibly, save money, track expenses, prepare a spending plan, and eliminate debt. She also teaches a program focused on credit issues such as establishing credit, understanding credit reports, and avoiding credit repair scams. Moore says, “Many of the people I work with have no idea what to expect or how to handle their finances when they get out. We are playing a vital role in re-entry preparation, and hopefully, helping reduce recidivism rates in the process.”

Jennifer Abel, an Extension agent in Arlington County, provides a six-week money management course to inmates, and also coordinates a volunteer-delivered program offered to those who have recently been released. The volunteers teach clients how to reconcile their debts and create budgets. Volunteers also offer long-term financial counseling to these former inmates.

“I have had several inmates call me after they have been released to report how they are doing,” Abel says. “One man called to say he is taking college classes and working on building his credit rating, and that he had found a full-time job.”

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