Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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| At Grace Network |
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Monday, September 28, 2009
By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
Grace Network of Martinsville and Henry County is completing its first Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class on financial responsibility, but with a twist.
At Grace, volunteer mentors work one-on-one with clients in the class to see how the financial principles can be applied to their specific situations to improve their finances, said Jenniffer Jamison, executive director of Grace Network.
Grace wants to make the class user-friendly and help clients help themselves, she added.
Truliant Federal Credit Union provided Grace with a grant to hold the 13-week class for 16 people, Jamison said. That is a $99 value per person, and Grace is offering it free to Grace clients, Jamison said.
Two students are enrolled in the first class, which began in late in July and will finish in October. There are two volunteer mentors for that class.
Grace hopes to start a second 13-week class in November or December and continue offering classes until the grant money runs out, Jamison said. After that and evaluating the program, Grace may seek additional funding to continue the classes, Jamison said.
“Grace Network is a first-stop center of resources for residents of Martinsville and Henry County, supported by more than 80 congregations and hundreds of individuals as well as civic groups, foundations and corporations, where people who are facing a crisis involving essential life needs can find help and a listening ear,” according to Grace’s Web site. “We are here to help our neighbors in need. We give short-term assistance, but we also want to help our clients find long-term solutions.”
According to information on the daveramsey.com Web site, Ramsey is a personal management expert, national radio personality and author. By age 26 he had a $4 million real estate portfolio, only to lose it by age 30. He has since rebuilt his financial life and now devotes himself full-time to helping people understand financial distress and how to overcome it.
His program helps people eliminate debt and credit cards, learn to budget, avoid bankruptcy and build wealth.
The classes cover “saving for emergencies, budgeting, relationship and money issues, buying big bargains, getting out of debt, understanding insurance, retirement and college planning, buyer beware, real estate mortgages (and) careers and extra jobs,” the Web site says.
Donna Finley of Ridgeway, a volunteer mentor in the Grace program, said the program applies to people of all income levels, but Grace’s program deals more with those in need.
After a DVD is shown in each class, it is discussed, and then one-on-one mentoring is held to help Grace clients determine such things as exactly how they spend their money, areas where they could reduce their spending or increase their income (such as working overtime or getting an extra job), budgeting and ways to start or increase saving.
After looking at exactly where money was spent, for example, one person pinpointed where some money had been “blown,” Finley said. Also, sometimes credit card charges and bank overdraft fees can hurt a person’s budget, she said.
Jamison said sometimes a light bulb seems to go off in a client’s head when he or she takes a hard look at where his or her money is going. For example, someone’s income and expenses may not add up, so they can consider changes to balance their books. Or a person may live in a three-bedroom apartment but doesn’t need that much space, so a move may be in order, Jamison said as an example.
Finley said the Ramsey program is Bible-based, and Scriptures are quoted in the DVDs, but “we’re not pushing religion.”
“With the economy like this in Martinsville, it (the Ramsey program) can be a help” to people, she said.
For more information, go to http://www.gracenetworkmhc.org/, e-mail info@gracenetworkmhc.org or call 638-8500. |
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