Personal financial wellness improves quality of life and enhances Head Start programs’ staff’s ability to provide services and care to families In this course, learners explore evidence-based strategies for savings, paying off debt, and achieving your personal financial goals.

Early childhood educators are passionate about helping young children grow and learn. But it’s important to remember to prioritize financial wellness. In this course, we’ll dive into the principles of Money + Life Balance and provide strategies for Head Start staff to manage their finances as educators. Learners will develop a plan for their money and explore how to make informed financial decisions.

Together, we’ll cover the unique challenges that Head Start staff and their families face when it comes to money. Whether it’s budgeting, reducing debt, or saving for the future, we’ll provide practical tips and guidance.

This course covers attachment styles, the six stages of change, and how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. It also explores how friends and family can influence an individual’s relationship with money and how to use that to its advantage.

Learn together! Managing finances as a family can help create a sense of unity, improve communication, and make it easier to achieve your financial goals. Each staff member is encouraged to invite a family member to take the course with them for free.

Course information:

• Course Level: Beginner
• Recommended Requirements: Financial Wellness Essentials is a great place to start! Available for program purchase, this course supports learners in developing financial literacy skills. Though not required, the Essentials course provides a solid foundation to build cash-flow plans.

Topics:

• The principles of Money + Life Balance
• Behavioral science and relationships with money
• The six stages of change
• Balancing savings and debt payoff
• Money and relationships
• Goal setting for our finances

Learning objectives:

• Learners will be able to name the principles of Money + Life Balance and recognize the advantages of different cash flow models.
• Learners will be able to name the benefits of secure attachments to money, the fix for insecure attachments to money, and identify why behavior change is hard.
• Learners will explore the six stages of change and how to set themselves up for success.
• Learners will understand what “good” looks like for savings accumulation and debt payoff.
• Learners will understand the impact our friends and family have on our relationships to money and how to maintain physical and psychological health through social support.
• Learners will explore goal-setting theory and create personalized goals for their finances.

Head Start Alignment

This course supports programs in meeting Head Start Program Performance Standard 1302.93 Staff health and wellness in which “a program must make mental health and wellness information available to staff regarding health issues that may affect their job performance, and must provide regularly scheduled opportunities to learn about mental health, wellness, and health education.”

Course Registration rates

Path to Financial Wellness Rates

Complete the financial wellness journey by bundling it with Financial Wellness Essentials!

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Melissa Pancoast

Melissa Pancoast is the founder and CEO of The Beans, a financial care company changing the way hard working Americans relate to their finances. She started her career as a teacher, where she saw the impact of financial stress firsthand in her community. After completing graduate work at the University of Oxford, she served as a researcher in the University of Oxford’s Center for Evidence-Based Interventions. Her work, a series of “Economic Strengthening” workshops has been shared with 300 million people worldwide as a pillar in the global emergency response to COVID-19. Melissa has a MS in Evidence-Based Social Intervention from the University of Oxford and a BS in Political Science from Stetson University.

Alex Orozco

Alex Orozco is the founding Designer and Head of Product Design at The Beans. As a Head Start alumna, she knows the power of Head Start first hand. In college, she taught English to teachers in Mexico and recruited educators. She earned her MSEd in Teaching English as a Second Language and started her career as a 5th grade ESL math teacher. She also coached basketball and chess to help pay down nearly 90k in student loans. She is responsible for the design and user experience of the app, The Beans brand, and the Customer Success team.