By Gillian Heckert-Mitchell, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator
Habitat MontDelco’s Almost Home helps families across Montgomery and Delaware counties become financially stable through a six-week program. Almost Home helps families set goals, learn skills and change financial behaviors. During the sessions, families learn valuable financial skills through videos, presentations and one-on-one sessions with a financial coach. The Fall 2021 Almost Home session just wrapped up and 34 participants graduated. During the program, families learned about budgeting, investing, student loans, and more. As part of the program, each participant or family is paired with our volunteer financial coaches who help them create an individual success plan for the family’s overall goals.
Our volunteer financial coaches meet outside of the class to help each family or participates meet their goals.
We wanted to give a huge shoutout and thank you to our amazing volunteer financial coaches from the Fall 2021 Almost Home classes. Our three volunteer financial coaches that presented on a variety of topics this session and helped with one-on-one sessions this term were Harry Singer, Herb Colley, and Scott Isard.
Herb Colley first heard about the Habitat volunteer financial coach opportunity from his wife who read about it in a Habitat newsletter. He is a retired financial planner role and has presented and counseled employers offering 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plan benefits to their employees. “There were two things that concerned me during my career at Vanguard that went unfulfilled. One was how to explain in detail the importance of saving for retirement and not postponing that for other goals like saving for a child’s college education to individuals who did not fit the profile I normally worked with at Vanguard” Herb says.
“The other was how to counsel someone [not a Vanguard client] who may not have a clear understanding of their employee benefits and may not be getting guidance from their employer. Habitat has given me the opportunity to coach individuals on financial matters that fall in areas of my professional and personal experience” Herb says. Also, he has been delivering a presentation titled, “Student Loans,” which addresses college financial planning during the Almost Home sessions.
Harry Singer joined our financial coaching team in 2018 and has supported a number of our Almost Home clients on their path to financial security. “I’ve always been a pretty handy guy, so I originally approached Habitat to volunteer to help build houses, but given the need for financial coaches, my focus shifted to coaching.” Harry developed a “Building Your Financial Strength” presentation which has become a key component of our Almost Home curriculum. “Most of our clients never had any real grounding in money management, budgeting or planning,” says Harry, “so, it’s important that we provide a financial readiness program that sets our clients up for home ownership success.” He also put together a training module for new coaches, so they can be more effective when working with their clients.
“I’m happy to be part of the MontDelco Habitat team, they’re great folks and coaching prospective homeowners continues to be a very rewarding experience.” Harry Singer, Almost Home Volunteer Financial Coach
Scott Isard became a financial services coach in December 2019. Having lived in Montgomery County for most of his life, he has “always wanted to give back to the community” that has been so good for him.
“I have had some wonderful mentors throughout my personal life and professional career. When I retired a few years ago, I looked for an organization that helped our community in the same way I wanted to. I found Habitat for Humanity and it has been a perfect fit for me. I would like to spend the coming years helping individuals and strengthening our community, just as I was helped as a young adult. Almost Home is an excellent platform for accomplishing those goals, and I am proud to be a part of it.” Scott Isard, Almost Home Volunteer Financial Coach
Thank you, Herb, Harry, Scott for sharing a little about why they became financial coaches. And thank you to all of the hardworking volunteers that help Almost Home be a successful program.
The work you do is so important to our mission and we want to say a big thank you to all the work you do and continue to do! Our volunteer financial coaches play a vital role in the Almost Home program, and we are so lucky to have them!
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