If you’ve ever problem solved with at least one other person, you will know that there are multiple ways to look at a situation. This is why two people may try to solve the same problem differently, but they could still get similar results. With Valley of the Sun United Way’s Financial Coach Training, we show coaches how this leads to the importance of personalizing solutions to each client.

In this free training, case managers from non-profits across the Valley get to know each other over the course of 4 weeks, meeting one day a week. Talking about finances can be a very personal matter, so it is important for the group to establish trust with each other, ultimately setting them up to learn best practices for doing the same with their clients.

Throughout the course, case managers identify their financial goals, and how they feel about where they are currently in different areas of money like savings, retirement, debt, assets and more. Openly discussing everyone’s unique situation and point of view helps to put into perspective how finding out what is important to each individual person is an essential first step to finding out what will be an exciting win for them. By discovering specific values, case managers can find out what will be exciting and motivational for their clients.

Lessons like trust, personalization, and making connections are constants in the training alongside tangible tools like budget sheets, visualization exercises, and various resources from guest speaker experts. By undergoing coaching from each other, case managers experience what a client experiences and has empathy for the emotional pieces that lead to understanding what a client may not know they were feeling.

See how this helped Celeste, a case manager from Save the Family, connect on a deeper level with her client Clare to help her find financial stability:

Thanks to partners like Save the Family, we are able to fight for families like Clare’s. Because of our donors we are the only non-profit in Arizona to offer a training like this for free. We couldn’t do it without the help of those who choose to join the fight.

Contact Carla Snyder at csnyder@vsuw.org if you want to learn more about supporting this amazing program and /or any of our other work here at Valley of the Sun United Way.

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