News

Small Steps Lead to Big Improvements

Taking a series of small steps to improve your overall health and financial situation can add up to a big leap forward. That’s the theory behind the Small Steps to Health and Wealth program. The program, originally developed at Rutgers University, helps people make small, positive changes in their behaviors that add up to big improvements in their lives.

Crystal Barber, Extension agent, family and consumer sciences in Portsmouth, saw the difference the program made for a group of young people enrolled in the YouthBuild Program, part of the Tidewater Builders Association’s Building Trades Academy. Staff vice president Tony Davis wanted the participants to learn life skills along with the building trades skills they were getting through the program.

Barber worked with Davis to organize a six-week series of Small Steps to Health and Wealth that included information about nutrition, financial management, tobacco awareness, stress management, and banking and insurance. “Many of these young people came from high-risk backgrounds and had multiple unhealthy habits, in both their eating behaviors and their spending patterns. I brought together experts from the health care and the financial services fields to help them learn to make better choices,” Barber says.

The response to the program has been positive. One hundred percent of the participants rated the program “extremely valuable” or “very valuable” at the end of the six weeks. They also included comments like: “After this program, I plan to stop eating candy, eat more vegetables, and stop drinking soda,” and “I learned that by saving $30 a month for ten years, I can end up with $4,677.”

---