Page 52 - BusinessWest Sept. 29, 2021

Flavia McCaughey leads a financial-literacy session at Square One.
Square One
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setting technique, is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Flavia Cote said her team encourages people to set a goal such as buying a reliable car, and the FR staff breaks it down to the actions needed to eventually reach the goal.
“We encourage people to try to save at least $10 a month,” she said. “Even if they can’t save $10 next month, they have started to think about saving.”
To prevent being overwhelmed by a large goal, Peter suggests taking it one step at a time. “I don’t want people to think about years from now — just think about the next 24 hours. When you bring it down to 24 hours, you help people see an attain- able goal.”
In their monthly sessions, the FR staff help people with figuring the numbers and, more importantly, understanding the emotions that come with handling finances.
“If someone can’t save for one month, we encourage them to set the goal for next month,” Flavia said. “We want to bring hope and make finance simple enough for people to achieve some sort of financial independence.”
Like dedicated saving, positive actions can also have a compounding effect. Recently, a class- action case involving overdraft fees at a regional bank reached a settlement for several million dol- lars. Once all the claimants received their share, $23,000 remained. This final amount is usually provided to a nonprofit program in alignment with the core theme of the case and is known as a ‘cy pres,’ from a French phrase meaning ‘as near as possible.’
The plaintiff’s counsel, Angela Edwards, learned about the Square One program from Flavia Cote and thought it sounded perfect. “I recommended the cy pres for Square One, the defense counsel agreed, and the judge approved it.”
Making Progress
Peter Cote sees his main job not as a financial person, but as a champion for others. “We’re deal- ing with people who have a variety of financial challenges, and we are their champions to let
them know it will be OK.”
When people attend the sessions at Square
One, Flavia said, they show they are ready to make progress with their lives. “We try to help people understand their situation is not perma- nent and there is a way to change it.”
While a term like financial literacy might sound academic, Peter offered a few different terms that might better describe the course.
“You could call it financial well-being, or Life 101,” he said. “Maybe Figuring It Out 101.” u
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