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by Debbie Kelley at The Gazette April 13, 2022

Eleven women of varying ages sit on chairs positioned in a horseshoe, clutching handouts and responding to questions from the instructor. The task: Discern whether a purchase is an impulse or a habit, something they do or do not need, an expenditure they can or cannot control.

“What was the last item you bought that was $5?” case manager Noah Ruybal asked the group. Most likely a drink or food, some said. “$10?” Cigarettes for many. It’s a habit, and “You don’t want to run out,” noted one woman. What about $100? “What?” one woman yelled out. “Oh, Lord,” mumbled another. “Usually at $100, people put ‘substance,’ meaning drugs, said Ruybal, who’s teaching a first-ever financial literacy course at ComCor Inc. in Colorado Springs. The private, nonprofit diversion program provides residential treatment, counseling, employment assistance and lessons in personal improvement for criminal offenders exiting the state’s correctional system. To come up with the $100 in the example, many clients would ask someone if they could borrow money and probably couldn’t pay it back, Ruybal said.

The wave of debt to others and society grows when people are sent to ComCor’s intensive residential treatment program, which includes the women in the finance class. They’re transitioning from living behind bars to reintegrating back into society, are there as a condition of probation, or have been assigned to ComCor instead of incarceration. Under the 90-day program, they must remain sober while they receive therapy for their addictions. They can't work, so rent and other obligations can add up, Ruybal said. “One of my clients said she’s never really thought about finances before,” he said. “Now that she’s going to be entering the world sober, she’s learning how to budget.” The program, created by Eastern Colorado Bank headquartered in Cheyenne Wells, is part of a new direction for the halfway house.

Alternative penal centers have come under scrutiny in recent years from audits, data and facility reports showing shortcomings in rehabilitating clients. A Gazette investigation in 2020 uncovered incidents of staff sexual misconduct, drug use, violence, escapes and worsening recidivism rates at halfway houses statewide. The situation became so troublesome that in 2018, Colorado’s Department of Corrections reported to the Legislature that female offenders were opting to stay in prison rather than transition into a halfway house program over concerns about safety and drug use among clients. Colorado Springs resident Ashley Truitt said she chose serving time in prison instead of going to ComCor for a previous conviction because of the facility’s negative reputation. Today, with a drug charge, she’s in ComCor’s intensive residential treatment program.  The “bad rap” the institution has gotten has dissipated, she said.

A rebranding initiative launched last month, said Jeanie Vigil, client program manager, under Executive Director Mark Wester’s vision to “build community corrections into something more than your sentence.” That means providing clients with a life-changing experience for the better, Vigil said. “They are revamping a lot of things, and you get out of it what you put into it,” Truitt said. “It’s obvious the staff now genuinely care about us.”

Truitt thinks the financial class will be beneficial. She hopes to reenter the housekeeping eld after completing the three-month intensive program and moving into the regular section of ComCor for five months, which requires employment. “If you have a basic understanding of these life skills, it can help you feel like your only answer is not to turn to your street knowledge,” she said. “This takes a lot of intimidation out of it, and people realize they’re more capable than they think.” New training like financial literacy, and another course based on the book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” are intended to “meet clients were they’re at” and develop useful skills, Vigil said.

The women are learning how their relationship with money can be less adversarial, as they plan to legitimately earn a living. “The goal is they’ll start feeling like they’re in control of their future,” Vigil said. The new classes also are intended to decrease repeat offenses, said Shannon Chase, chair of the ComCor board and vice president of funding for Eastern Colorado Bank, which developed the interactive course specially for the correctional population.

Students at Otero Elementary School learned the importance of money and entrepreneurship on May 13 during Junior Achievement in a Day financial literacy training.

The program teaches elementary school kids about the importance of finance, budgeting, how to use various forms of payment. 

“We work with volunteers in the community to teach students lessons in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship,” said Lauren Kunze, director of program strategy and partnerships for Junior Achievement Southern Colorado. “This model of what we do is called ‘JA in a Day’ and it’s for grades [kindergarten] through fifth grade. Each classroom has a set of volunteers who prepare our ready-made curriculum and they talk to students about business, jobs and money.”

Rather than offer bland presentations that Kunze said, “might miss the mark with kids,” volunteers taught lessons through games.

In some classrooms, students created businesses and set prices for their product to understand how revenue and expense work.

In others, kids learned the differences between cash, check, credit and debit cards, and digital wallets, by pretending to purchase items with each form of payment.

To help the lessons stick, Kunze said Junior Achievement provides resources for kids to bring to their parents.

“We have some take home materials that have games and activities that students and their families can participate in at home,” Kunze said. “We want to bring that real-world experience into the classroom so students see the connection between what they’re learning in their academics to what kind of careers they might have.”

Misty Silvas, Eastern Colorado Bank assistant vice president of operations, showed kindergartners how to make “smart” savings choices.

Silvas said this included teaching financial vocabulary words – bank, savings, money, need, want – and asked the kindergartners to define those.

“This class was amazing, and they were very attentive,” Silvas said. “They were great listeners and followed the lesson. A lot of them already have strong savings goals. You’re never too young to learn how to start saving money and making smart financial choices. If we start at kindergarten to set the foundation to have them become a strong entrepreneur, you’re setting a foundation for them to have a good future.”

Cristina Kuhl, a special education teacher at Otero, said she felt the kids enjoyed JA in a Day activities.

“I think we’ve lost the sense of teaching the importance of money and capitalism and what’s around for us,” Khul said. “It’s important for kids to learn that money is needed to buy things, but they should also know where money comes from and why money can be important later on.”

Khul also said she learned from the activities and plans to apply those lessons in her life.

“We’ve talked a lot about entrepreneur and different people who have created businesses” Kuhl said. “I want to capitalize on the resources I have and teach the kids that they have those available for them as well.”