Recovery Finance Project
People who are incarcerated often face enormous financial challenges when they leave prison, such as debt, damaged credit, and exclusion from financial services. People who are structurally marginalized due to racism and mental health stigma are even more likely to have these financial problems, which create barriers to successful re-entry. The Recovery Finance Project will address the financial well-being of justice involved people with mental health challenges. We will work with community partners across the New Haven region, including the City of New Haven, Winning Ways and the CT Association for Human Services, to implement an intervention targeting community level determinants of financial well-being for this population.
The intervention includes three components:
- One-on-one financial coaching and peer support for people who have been incarcerated and have mental health challenges. A randomized control trial is comparing financial coaching alone with financial coaching plus peer support.
- Systems level change through training for service providers working with the target population, and for banks and credit unions to increase knowledge of this population’s needs and reduce discrimination.
- Policy change through supporting advocacy efforts.