Implementing a Financial Management Curriculum With Survivors of IPV

Abstract

There is a clear need for financial literacy programs specific to survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), as the skills and knowledge acquired during these programs stand to increase survivors’ ability to achieve economic independence. In order to understand advocates’ experiences in providing a financial literacy program, this study reports the findings of a qualitative study among 19 domestic violence advocates across 10 states. Findings revealed that advocates expressed complexities in providing financial literacy to survivors. Furthermore, advocates discussed the ways in which they incorporated the financial literacy curriculum into their own financial management behaviors. These findings provide critical information in regard to best practice approaches to incorporating financial literacy into IPV services.

Background Literature

Addressing Economic Abuse Through Economic Empowerment

Encouraging financial empowerment among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the many responsibilities of advocates working in the IPV field. Improving financial empowerment among survivors of IPV is crucial, as studies have shown that financial dependence is one of the main reasons a woman remains in an abusive relationship (Adams, 2011; Anderson & Saunders, 2003; Barnett, 2000; Kim & Gray, 2008; Sanders & Schnabel, 2006). Although IPV occurs across all socioeconomic classes, low-income women are more often subject to abuse (Meier, 1997; Tolman & Raphael, 2000).

Results from the National Crime Victimization Survey demonstrated that women in families with annual incomes less than US$10,000 were 4 times more likely to be victimized than other women (Bachman & Saltzman, 1995). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed significantly higher prevalence of rape, physical violence, or stalking among women and men with a combined household income of less than US$25,000 (Breiding, Chen, & Black, 2014).

From a feminist empowerment paradigm, inequality and subordination in the lives of women need to be analyzed in order to promote social and economic justice (Mayoux, 2002). A feminist empowerment model provides a foundation for considering the multiple factors that impact women in patriarchal societies, including economic inequality. When focusing on the impact of patriarchy in the lives of women and the centrality of gender in multiple aspects of their lives (Drolet, 2010), it is important to pay special attention to the fact that women are more vulnerable to financial abuse as a tactic used by their abusers to perpetuate IPV.

The presence of economic abuse significantly affects the ability of a survivor to obtain financial independence. Economic abuse is a covert form of abuse that inhibits a survivor’s movement toward economic security and self-sufficiency through control of the ability to obtain, use, and maintain economic resources (Adams, Sullivan, Bybee, & Greeson, 2008; Sanders, 2015). Economic abuse occurs in three ways: (1) controlling the victim’s access to economic resources, (2) sabotaging the victim’s ability to obtain and maintain employment, and (3) exploiting the victim’s personal economic situation (Postmus, Plummer, & Stylianou, 2013). Furthermore, economic abuse tactics used by abusers decrease survivors’ confidence in their ability to manage their financial resources. This decrease in confidence may lead to detrimental financial behaviors and circumstances such as payment of higher amounts for financial services, use of predatory lending services, increased debt, and damaged credit (Christy-McMullin, 2011; Sanders, Weaver, & Schnabel, 2007).

Financial Literacy as a Tool for Survivors of IPV

Financial literacy programming is one way that service providers in the IPV field are beginning to address the financial situations of survivors. The presence of financial literacy services among IPV programs has increased as the need for these particular services has been identified (Christy-McMullin, 2003; Correia, 2000; Sanders & Schnabel, 2006; VonDeLinde, 2002). However, various barriers exist to their implementation. The inclusion of financial literacy services may require a shift in agency focus. Traditionally, services for IPV survivors have focused on short-term emergency needs such as food, housing, employment, skill building, and mental health services (Christy-McMullin, 2011; Chronister & McWhirter, 2003; Sanders et al., 2007; VonDeLinde, 2002; VonDeLinde & Correia, 2005).

When financial education is offered as an agency service, advocates may be called upon to provide this information to survivors due to its centrality to survivor safety and economic independence (VonDeLinde, 2002). Advocates in this role may be responsible for a range of activities. These often include evaluating a survivor’s economic situation, counseling survivors regarding their financial situations in group and individual settings, helping with tasks such as a making a budget, reviewing credit reports, opening bank accounts, connecting survivors to outside resources, and collaborating with community agencies and social services (Christy-McMullin, 2011; Sanders & Schnabel, 2006; VonDeLinde, 2002).

Experts in the field have made a wide range of recommendations to address current barriers in financial literacy program development. Among them is the suggestion for collaboration with other community agencies already providing economic services, the development training manuals and advocacy tools, and the implementation of certification requirements for advocates (Christy-McMullin, 2011; VonDeLinde, 2002). Researchers have also argued that financial training for advocates would provide opportunities to further empower and aid both advocates and survivors in navigating and understanding economic systems (Postmus, 2010).

IPV-specific programs such as Redevelopment Opportunities for Women’s “Realizing Your Economic Action Plan” (REAP), The Allstate Foundation’s Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s “Personal Economic Planning” program, and the “Hope and Power for Your Personal Finances” provide financial literacy education to increase survivor knowledge of and access to financial resources and aim to increase survivor confidence in managing finances (Correia, 2000; Postmus, 2011). Research suggests that survivors who participate in financial education interventions gain financial literacy, increase positive financial behaviors, and decrease economic dependence on both present and future abusers (O’Rourke, 2010).

Evaluation of Financial Literacy Programs for Survivors of IPV

Although systematic review of these programs has not been widespread, those programs that have implemented some form of evaluation have shown positive outcomes for survivors. A qualitative evaluation of the REAP program reported improved cognitive/affective behavioral and learning outcomes and feelings of empowerment upon completion of the program for participants (Sanders, 2007). Participants also reported actively working toward short- and long-term financial goals, overall improvement in their financial lives, and taking steps to achieve and maintain economic independence (Sanders, 2007). A quantitative evaluation of the REAP program also found that survivors who participated in the REAP program had significantly better scores in financial knowledge compared to survivors who did not participate in REAP (Sanders et al., 2007).

The Allstate Foundation’s Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum has undergone two longitudinal evaluations. The first study found that survivors had significant improvements in financial literacy, economic self-efficacy, and economic self-sufficiency after participating in the program (Postmus & Plummer, 2010). The second evaluation found improved economic outcomes for women who participated in the program compared to those who did not (Postmus, Hetling, & Hoge, 2015). These included significantly better scores and significant changes over time for financial literacy, financial attitudes, economic self-efficacy, economic self-sufficiency, financial behaviors and intentions, financial strain, perceived difficulty living on annual income, and quality of life (Postmus et al., 2015).

Advocates in the field who have assumed the responsibility of implementing these programs have voiced concerns related to their ability to provide financial literacy programming to survivors of IPV. In one study, advocates noted that there should be a set of core competencies with respect to financial advising to increase their knowledge and ability to financially help survivors (Rupred, Most, & Sherraden, 2000). A second study revealed advocates’ need for their own financial capacity to be increased and for provision of additional training to ensure comprehensive financial education for survivors (Postmus, 2010).

Advocates have also reported challenges related to the logistics of implementing financial literacy programs. Research indicates that a lack of funding and training are major barriers to providing financial literacy programs (Postmus, 2010). Inconsistent financial knowledge, a lack of clarity about how economic services fit the mission of the agency, overworked staff, a lack of financially trained staff as well as other systemic barriers have also been identified (Sanders & Schnabel, 2006; VonDeLinde, 2002). Furthermore, survivors’ short housing stays, work schedule conflicts, and focus on short-term/emergency needs have also been highlighted as barriers to program implementation (VonDeLinde, 2005).

There is a clear need for the development of financial literacy programs specific to IPV survivors, as the skills and knowledge acquired during these programs stand to increase survivors’ ability to manage money and achieve economic independence. There is also a need for the evaluation of these programs from the perspective of advocates. Such evaluations would provide key information to agencies on ways in which financial literacy programs can be implemented. In an effort to provide insight on how financial literacy can be used as one of the strategies for economic empowerment, especially for survivors of IPV, the purpose of this article is to understand the experiences of 19 advocates implementing a financial literacy program designed specifically for survivors. The main research question guiding this study is: What are the experiences of advocates providing a financial literacy program for survivors of IPV?

Method

Participants

This project was part of a longitudinal, exploratory study evaluating the impact of the Moving Ahead Through Financial Management financial literacy program. This program was created by The Allstate Foundation in partnership with the National Network to End Domestic violence and was implemented with IPV survivors in domestic violence organizations across the United States. The curriculum was created to help survivors identify the signs of economic abuse, increase their financial knowledge, enhance their ability to manage their finances, and obtain the confidence they need to rebuild their financial lives (www.clicktoempower.org). The study was implemented in the summer of 2008 and lasted for 11 months. After receiving approval from the University’s institutional review board, 15 IPV programs, across 10 states (West Virginia, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, New York, and Iowa), were asked to participate in the research project. These agencies were purposefully chosen as they had applied for and obtained grants to introduce the Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum to their participants.

Individuals working at the shelters and/or nonresidential programs as counselors and case managers (referred to as advocates going forward) from each site were provided a onetime, multiday training on the material prior to implementation. Each site was then provided multiple copies of the curriculum that outlined the basic topics that were to be addressed. The advocates were given carte blanche on how they wanted to deliver the material. Some advocates chose to provide the information in a group setting, while others provided the information either individually or as a combination of group and one on one. Participants were either chosen and invited by the advocates, and then invited to attend the groups or individual sessions, or a flyer was sent out to all of the clients in the agency in an effort to recruit participants. The clients were also provided a copy of the curriculum and a calculator.

For this study, a total of 19 advocates from all of the 15 programs were interviewed face to face utilizing 13 open-ended questions, in order to learn about their experiences with the Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum. Advocates responsible for teaching the material at each agency were interviewed by two researchers in charge of conducting the study. Interviews were held in person and/or over the phone. The number of advocates interviewed from site to site depended on how many were teaching the curriculum. At some sites, one advocate was solely responsible for teaching the information to the women, while at other sites two advocates shared that role. At the time of the interviews, each site was at a different point in implementing the curriculum. Some sites had been sharing the information with their clients for a few months, while other sites had just started introducing the material. Therefore, the answers to these questions are based on the advocates’ experiences with the curriculum as they were currently implementing it with survivors of IPV. The research plan included a schedule that incorporated the interviews of all of the advocates at the same time twice during the course of the implementation of the curriculum.

Interview Guide

Interviews were conducted with the advocates using an interview guide and all advocates gave permission for the interviews to be recorded. The interviews were then transcribed verbatim. The interviews lasted approximately 1 hour and were conducted at the agencies in which the advocates were employed. Advocates were asked about their experiences providing the Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum to survivors at their agencies. Advocates were asked about the process of providing the curriculum including questions on how they chose what workbooks to utilize, if they preferred individual or group sessions and recommendations on providing the curriculum. Advocates were also asked to evaluate the curriculum by explaining what sections were most/least helpful in their opinion and which clients benefited the most/least from the curriculum. Finally, advocates were asked how comfortable they felt with teaching the curriculum and if they incorporated any information from the curriculum into their own lives.

Data Analysis

The current study employed a qualitative approach that searched for significant statements and meanings in the responses of study participants. This design was appropriate given that the goal of the study was to gain an in-depth understanding of 19 advocates’ experiences with providing financial literacy education to survivors of IPV. The experiences and observations of these advocates provide an important view on the financial literacy work at these settings.

A thematic analysis of the data across and within interviews was performed in order to identify patterns and themes. In addition, a coding scheme that ranged from low to high levels of abstraction was implemented, using microanalysis, followed by axial coding, procedures commonly used in grounded theory designs (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Starting with the coding of raw data, and subsequently comparing and contrasting categories, key themes were uncovered based on commonalities and differences in the experiences of the participants.

To begin this process, all transcripts were read and open coded by four researchers using Atlas.ti. In this first round of coding, detailed coding was utilized to identify over 530 raw codes from the data. In the second round of coding, two researchers independently grouped the codes into groups and families and then compared their categories and came to a consensus of 40 groups within 12 families. The researchers then reviewed the groups and patterns to ensure that all agreed with the categories. Each of the four researchers then reviewed the original coding again and added/changed any codes where necessary. Engaging in what Patton (2002) refers to as investigator triangulation, periodically, all researchers met to discuss codes, categories, and themes. Once the main categories and patterns emerged, they engaged in a narrative analysis within each interview to make sure that the essence of the stories was not lost. Those themes were discussed between the researchers until consensus was reached. Finally, a researcher who had not participated in the coding process took the role of auditor as a way to substantiate trustworthiness, by examining the process and the interpretation of the data (Creswell, 1998).

Findings

After the research team analyzed the transcripts of the interviews, the key themes emerged in response to the advocates’ experiences with the implementation of a financial literacy program for IPV. Particular attention was paid to the strengths, limitations, and challenges of implementing a financial literacy program in high-stress, resource-limited environments with clients in various stages of crisis and recovery from trauma. The thematic analysis of statements across and within interviews revealed three overarching themes: (1) Introducing Financial Literacy Curriculum in Traditional Service Settings for Survivors of IPV, (2) Implementing Financial Literacy Efforts in Their Advocates’ Personal Lives, and (3) Decision Making and Implementation Barriers. Within each theme, the advocates shed light on specific factors that shape their work in supporting survivors of IPV that are important and relevant when it comes to addressing best practice approaches in the field.

Introducing a Financial Literacy Curriculum in Traditional Service Settings for Survivors of IPV

Advocates who work with survivors of IPV support them in their journeys at different stages of the helping process. Given the often busy context in which advocates work, those who facilitated the financial literacy groups for participants were adding a new responsibility to their already full schedules. Many advocates talked about the fast-paced environment in which they work. One noted,

We run run, run, run, run so you don’t have a whole lot of time that you can sit down and really get more into it because the phone is always ringing, someone’s coming in ….

I didn’t necessarily use all of the activities … just because of the time constraint, of you know, trying to get something accomplished.

The advocates’ personal experiences around finances impacted the way they faced the responsibility of implementing the financial literacy curriculum with participants. Advocates also saw their ability to engage the curriculum as helpful to themselves personally and as role models for their participants. They felt positive about the content, seeing value in this type of information and sharing it with their clients. Two advocates reported,

I feel pretty comfortable with that—it is well written and easy to talk about and understand. It has not only been helpful for the participants but me as well.

I loved it. The first training, I learned so much. I personally have gotten a lot out of it. And yes some of it was very new to me.

I think it was a huge, huge step in the right direction for us to say, “We’re gonna do what we ask clients to do,” even though it was really, really scary in the beginning …

In the same vein, some advocates described the challenging but important responsibility of learning the financial literacy curriculum to be able to better support participants:

But for us, I think it’s really important that if we’re gonna be out there and everybody here’s job description, including mine, says you gotta be a role model, you know, you gotta be willing to practice what we preach here …

I tell the clients all the time-if you want to learn about money, just, you know, read something every day that deals with money … Since I started reading the curriculum, you know, I feel like I can have a decent conversation about stocks and investments and things like that so it has done me, you know, like I tell them, I’m learning as you’re learning every time I talk to them.

Acting as role models for participants in the arena of personal finances was challenging on a personal level due to advocates’ own financial anxieties. The volume of new information they learned as a result of preparing to lead these financial literacy groups also posed challenges. One key strategy for managing these challenges was reaching out to other advocates and community members. Working in conjunction with fellow staff members and advocates from the state coalition, advocates were able to obtain the information they needed for the participants with whom they worked:

If I wasn’t sure about something they were asking us, I’d say you know what, I need to get back to you … if I had to, I called the bank and say ok, I had this come up, what do we do?

I feel OK. We are going to be bringing in some professional people to talk about investments. I don’t know enough about that myself to feel like I can share with anybody. If the women want, I’ve talked to a couple of local bankers and they’re more than willing to come in and work with us on that.

This process of connecting with advocates at sister agencies to aid participants also proved beneficial for the advocates themselves as new information was shared with other agencies. One advocate noted,

We are invited by the coalition to go to a advocates’ retreat and we will be doing the credit report […] so we’re looking forward to that, to taking what we’ve learned from the Allstate program and bringing it out and sharing that with all the advocates.

Implementing Financial Literacy Efforts in Advocates’ Personal Lives

Due to the nature of this work, many advocates live in contexts in which money is tight and can be a source of stress and anxiety. For some, this served as an impetus to discuss their own finances among agency staff members. One stated,

The staff were really interested in it. They wanted to start an hour group to talk about their money issues since they feel pretty broke. Even the facilitators are thinking about their finances.

Almost all of the advocates incorporated the financial literacy curriculum into their own lives through changes in knowledge and/or through changes in financial behaviors. The advocates spoke candidly about the experience of becoming financially literate themselves through the new knowledge they gleaned from the Allstate financial literacy curriculum:

I looked at my credit. I looked at my debt and stocks. I recognized I did have fears around money.

Cause I had never taught any type of financial literacy class and I wasn’t very financially literate myself […], But then once I read the curriculum, it laid it out a whole lot easier.

[…] when I was going through guidebook 4, you know, a lot of that was just beyond my knowledge, I had never invested myself.

For some advocates, preparing to teach the curriculum to survivors was an opportunity to apply the financial literacy skills to their own lives. This often meant engaging in more deliberate financial behaviors based on this new knowledge:

When I went through it myself—it has brought up things I want to do in my personal life. What we have done I have already addressed but as we continue it will enhance my knowledge … It has made me look at my long-term financial goals, are they realistic. And to start looking at ways to meet those needs. And to start saying you have to do this and do that.

The new knowledge challenged familiar practices, such as using cash advances or financing household purchases through payment plans with high interest rates for some advocates. One of them described this transition in her own life, from often being a victim of predatory lending to making financial choices that empowered her:

We started talking about other forms of predatory lending like rent-to-own furniture places. I would go finance a TV that would end up being $3,000, $4,500 … Then, after reading the curriculum, I thought, do I take that same 50 dollars that I would be making on a monthly planned payment towards this stuff and put it away? So it’s really, really helped me.

Other topics of greatest use to the advocates were budgeting and credit issues.

I learned to budget and track my money to see where my money is going. I started to understand my spending habits.

Well, it has really made me stop and think for what I have for the future and how I need to save more than what I have right now.

A handful of advocates went beyond making changes in their own financial lives as a result of teaching the curriculum and also shared what they learned with others. This included both colleagues and family members.

And so I brought some of that home … And then, but another thing is that it has affected the whole staff here because as part of the curriculum, we brought activities to our staff meetings …

Of the few advocates who did not incorporate the curriculum into their lives, one advocate explained that she was already doing the things that were recommended in the curriculum. Another advocate expressed that she accepted her own financial situation as it is, without feeling the drive to make changes:

Unfortunately, I would say no because I have already done all of this.

It is what it is, you know. It’s just kinda like, this is what I make, this is what I pay, so it is what it is.

All of the advocates reported feeling comfortable with the curriculum. However, some took steps to obtain additional information about a range of financial literacy topics through outside manuals, REAP, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), local banks, and family members.

The fact that you should put money into stock and leave it there for quite some time, you know, I didn’t understand any of that and this curriculum really sparked that for me. I end up reading other sources of course, you know to get more information but for the most part, you know it sparked the interest for me to even begin to learn more about it.

… I went to the REAP program, and FDIC. I did a lot of work outside of the manuals to make it relevant to the women and to be comfortable myself to do the training.

Decision Making and Implementation Barriers

Deciding who should get the curriculum

Some of the advocates expressed a sense of frustration around implementing a financial literacy program when there were other crises that needed their attention. Further, advocates seemed to view the curriculum as irrelevant to their clients’ hierarchy of needs. This judgment factored into how, when, and to whom they introduced the content. As stated, advocates had the freedom to deliver the material in any way they felt would be most advantageous to their clientele. Participants just entering services and deemed “in crisis” were predominately excluded from the curriculum by the advocates. There was a general sense that clients just leaving abusive situations could not gain from this information at that time because they were addressing more immediate issues. They questioned the utility of such a program when the clients have only just left the abuser. There was a clear definition by these advocates of a hierarchy of needs that did not appear to include financial literacy. This judgment was based on their opinion and experience in the field prior to the implementation of the program.

Women in crisis it is too much because they are not at a point in which they can begin with this information. Once out of the crisis and they are settled then we can begin on this information. When they are transitioning out of the shelter.

Yes, people that were overwhelmed with other goals that needed to be accomplished were less apt to gain from the material. When you are in the mode of getting your basic necessities met this material is not on their agenda.

While there was some consensus among the advocates in this study regarding who should receive the curriculum, there was, in contrast, great diversity in advocates’ views on who benefited from the program and who did not. Advocates noted a range of characteristics that affected how much a participant benefited from the program. These ranged from a participant’s age and immigration status to time at the shelter and employment status upon entering the program.

The older ones seemed to bring a lot to the table, the younger ones seemed to gain a lot from just the basics … the younger group seemed to get things, but the ones who seemed to really get it was your more your middle-aged group.

Lack of employment was cited as a reason that participants did not benefit from the curriculum:

… The women who don’t have jobs—they say how can we talk about money if we don’t have any money?

One advocate identified former incarceration as a serious barrier for participants. This is a challenge that ought to be examined carefully, as it was not considered in the current formulation of the curriculum:

Women who have been incarcerated—their biggest concern is how to get job—plus restitution and court fees, bill, and some kind of charge—even talking about money—they get mad—they can’t even talk about it because they don’t have anything … They are discouraged.

As the facilitators of the financial literacy curriculum, advocates played a critical role in identifying participants who would be willing to participate in the training and were responsible for keeping these participants motivated to complete the program. As advocates noted, survivors arriving at domestic violence organizations are often in a state of crisis. So, it is likely that advocates provide the majority of the support for client participation in this curriculum. In addition to concern for the status of participants’ mental health upon arrival, advocates expressed that they were burdened with many work obligations and few resources. Given this context, it is understandable that motivating participants to care about financial matters could be difficult.

I just don’t know how to get people more motivated, and excited. Some people are and some people, I don’t know, they’re just comfortably stuck where they are and they don’t wanna move up outta there, I don’t know how to get people motivated.

… clients gained what they could be based on their capacity. Women who did not have as much motivation did not gain as much. Women had the cognitive delays has motivational delays.

Overall, the consensus was that individuals who were motivated to learn the material were those who would gain the most from the program.

Implementation barriers

Barriers to implementing the curriculum included aspects that could be changed with additional resources, such as providing child care as well as less tangible obstacles such as how to motivate participants to focus on their financial well-being. Variation in methods for delivery of curriculum content also posed barriers.

In addition to the programmatic content, the format of the financial literacy trainings offered to participants had a significant impact on the advocates’ experiences with these programs. While others expressed the contrary, several advocates expressed great satisfaction with providing the curriculum in a group setting, noting various positive aspects to this dynamic:

… the group situation-support group of survivors-is so, so powerful and empowering that I cannot imagine-unless a woman has a specific problem with a creditor or something like that that an advocate can help her, I just think the group is the way to go.

It was good for building that all around general knowledge and made it less intimating, sharing their stories.

I think the group setting women learn they are not alone in their lack of their knowledge around financial information and breaks down in barriers. Everyone shares that they don’t know information. In individual the woman may take it as this is what I am telling you and how to change things.

For these advocates, the group setting allowed them to meet a broader goal for their participants by providing a context in which to model an empowerment approach. This meant helping the participants to turn to each other for problem-solving support and to see each other as capable, rather than reinforcing their roles as victims.

Other advocates, however, felt that the group setting for curriculum implementation was challenging due to a variety of factors. They reported perceiving that some participants felt they needed more privacy in order to open up about their financial situations, as well as participants who felt that aspects of the curriculum did not pertain to them (such as opening a retirement savings account).

I don’t think it’s [the Allstate curriculum] necessarily for a particular group of individuals, but it doesn’t take into account that some people, to be able to pay the electric bill during the month is a big thing that they’re actually able to do it … so some of those things were just, you know, we talked about retirement and they looked at us and laughed.

More than half of the advocates identified the group setting as a challenge because it required participants to be comfortable sharing personal financial information in front of one another. This suggests that a high level of trust must be established in order to succeed in group work:

I don’t think it would work in a group. Because they have to trust you completely and it’s hard, it’s difficult for I’m gonna say 95% of the people to open to you.

In order to address the challenge of working in groups, advocates provided individual sessions for participants to review aspects of the financial literacy curriculum:

We decided to do 3 individual sessions because they didn’t feel comfortable talking in the group, so they wanted to do privately.

For participants whose financial circumstances were particularly difficult, there was some reluctance to sharing in the group. Hence, advocates provided individual sessions for them.

… people don’t really like sharing their financial situation. They have a certain shame about it even though everyone’s in the same boat.

In addition to shame-based emotions that served as barriers, some participants faced personal logistical challenges that made participation difficult or even impossible. One critical example of this dynamic was the issue of childcare. Lack of childcare at the agencies themselves presented consistent challenges, particularly for participants with children who were not yet school age at the time the curriculum was being offered.

This one lady that was very happy to start the group but she stopped coming because she has two little boys and we don’t have childcare.

… Because I just feel like there’s so many women that do have children that are not in school yet, and if you bring ‘em, you don’t, the mom doesn’t learn anything …

As these quotes reflect, without child care, participants who are single parents of young children may actually forego this educational opportunity or miss out on group sessions. For those participants who attempted to juggle both the program and the child care, the ability to take in new information was very limited. Advocates also described the role of crisis in participants’ lives as a barrier to their participation in the financial curriculum workshops. Advocates believed that participants in crisis were not able to focus on learning the financial literacy information because they needed to stay focused on the immediate issues of physical safety, shelter, and care for themselves and their children.

… that’s one reason we have no shelter residents participating, because women would be in crisis and that’s not what they’re thinking about …

Another important factor was that financial education was sometimes considered a part of transition out of the shelter rather than a part of the personal crisis management process during the shelter stay.

Once out of the crisis and they are settled then we can begin on this information … when they are transitioning out of the shelter.

Another advocate spoke to this issue more broadly and described how a focus on other immediate goals often supersedes the focus on financial literacy. As advocates discussed their own ambivalence about incorporating what they learned from the curriculum into their own lives, they also acknowledged that financial issues could be very difficult for participants facing personal losses.

The few new clients, it was a very emotional topic for them.

Yes, people that were overwhelmed with other goals that needed to be accomplished were less apt to gain from the material. When you are in the mode of getting your basic necessities met this material is not on their agenda.

Discussion and Implications

Addressing financial literacy as a strategy for economic empowerment for women and acknowledging the particularities around finances in women’s lives can help in eradicating the historic marginalization that women, advocates and survivors of IPV included, have been subject to, especially in the economic arena. These findings suggest various factors worth considering when implementing financial literacy programs alongside IPV services. They also highlight the complexities surrounding this effort, including the need for developing structured programming and training for advocates.

The themes identified in this study provide a snapshot of how advocates experienced the implementation of The Allstate Foundation’s Moving Forward through Financial Management curriculum with survivors of IPV. This evaluation offers insight into both positive experiences and challenges faced by advocates, as they incorporated the content of the curriculum into their work settings and personal lives. Advocates reported on the complexity of the process of integrating financial literacy into their work and the challenges posed by this process.

One of the most remarkable outcomes of the study is learning how several of the advocates embraced the content personally and conquered their own financial fears. Similar to what has been found in evaluations of financial literacy programs with survivors, advocates also affirmed the positive impact of the financial literacy curriculum on their own financial management behaviors. In fact, in some anecdotal conversations, it was clear that the clients were also teaching the advocates. On a number of occasions, advocates stated that the information in the curriculum should not just be given to survivors of IPV but to all women. This was echoed over and over again, and it underscores the need for acknowledging financial literacy and economic empowerment as a tool for addressing a multiplicity of dimensions around economic equality for women, including those women who work with survivors of IPV.

An important element in implementing financial literacy that arose from the findings is that advocates need to implement the curriculum in a way that suits the clients’ particular situations. This context-specific implementation can be seen as a positive as it seeks to “start where the client is,” as each state and agency had specific clientele with specific needs. This is particularly helpful as it became clear that each organization was operating under specific rules and regulations regarding certain policies and financial programs. In fact, the advocates stated on numerous occasions that they wished the resource pages offered in the curriculum had included more state specific information.

One of the limitations presented by the way some advocates implemented the curriculum involved their decision making around which participants would benefit more from the curriculum. Although these decisions were made based on the advocates’ personal perceptions and experiences, limiting participation to particular survivors could, in turn, limit others from benefiting from the curriculum. Starting “where the client is” is a strength when advocates present material that seems appropriate for their clients based on their clients’ unique situations. However, this notion of limiting participation can also become problematic. Some advocates made decisions for the clients without asking them, thus not incorporating an empowering approach. Many of the advocates chose which topics they felt were best for the clients based on assumptions and not on evidence. This may be in part due to the advocates’ beliefs that they are doing what is best for their clients, but it could foster an environment of control which is especially concerning considering the clients have recently left controlling situations with their abusive partners.

Carr (2003) suggests that when implementing a feminist empowerment model, it is important to be reflexive about power relations not only around us but also within the professional relationship. This involves searching for alternative ways of sharing decision-making processes and power. Although there may not exist any perfect formula on deciding who participates in a financial literacy program, encouraging all residential and nonresidential programs for IPV survivors to adopt some form of financial literacy might be a first step in providing this type of education at different stages. Fawole (2008) makes an important point when addressing economic abuse with women and girls, stressing the importance of providing them with education at all levels when it comes to their rights, which could very well be implemented at different points of the intervention.

It would also be imperative to encourage increased collaboration between IPV agencies and financial institutions. Some of the advocates invited individuals from banks to supplement the content from the workbooks in the curriculum. This alleviated the pressure advocates felt regarding the need to learn and teach everything in the curriculum at the same time.

The term financial literacy can take on many definitions, and what was gathered from both the official interviews and the unofficial side conversations is that many advocates viewed financial literacy as long-term financial planning. Additional education on what constitutes financial literacy would help challenge these assumptions and offer new ways of looking at this topic. The curriculum itself actually allowed for this varied use by using workbooks that built upon themselves.

There are numerous reasons why implementation varied from state to state and site to site. One important reason is that the additional work that came with program implementation was seen as an additional stressor on an already overworked group of individuals. The advocates discussed how their already busy days were now busier with the addition of another group to run. Further, many found it hard to carve out time to review the content, fully learn it, and then present it in a manner that fit their clients’ needs. This was also based on the varied approaches allowed by agency administrative teams for incorporating this new program into their services. Some advocates were given time to prepare, learn, and implement the program (only one was given additional monetary compensation) while others were not, which resulted in having to find additional time, sometimes on their own personal time, for preparation.

Another reason for variance in implementation was a true lack of knowledge around certain curriculum topics. This in turn created anxiety and avoidance. While many advocates said they were comfortable with the content—when further pressed it became clear that only certain fundamental issues were being taught (i.e., budgeting) and more complex topics (i.e., stocks and bonds, education funds, etc.) were not. This is understandable as many advocates are underpaid or receive fairly low wages (Behounek, 2011) may have personal financial situations that may not be much better than their clients, and have limited personal experience with those more complex topics. As Lehrner and Allen (2009) state, the domestic violence movement has evolved into promoting organizations that provide expansive arrays of services. Although it may be beneficial to participants, expanding and providing specialized services, in this case financial literacy, involve further considerations when it comes to strengthening resources and training.

The results corroborate the need to not only promote financial literacy as a strategy for economic empowerment with survivors, but to do it with women in general, including advocates. Feminist Nancy Fraser (1989) suggests ways to address democracy, which can very well be applied to addressing economic inequality. One way is to consider collective identification, as well as an understanding of the need for women to work together toward liberation from inequality, economic inequality being one of its strongest forms. Individual empowerment for women depends on collective efforts, and this is very much true when thinking about economic empowerment in particular (Fraser, 1989). In that sense, “by relocating social work within a patriarchal capitalist global social structure” (Dominelli, 2002, p. 9), feminist social work research and practice can be a great platform for advancing economic empowerment for women receiving services for IPV as well as the women who work with them as service providers. Educating advocates is central to the success of implementing financial literacy and economic empowerment efforts with survivors in both nonresidential and shelter programs, and transitional housing. This could be done by first having the advocates go through the topics on their own as “clients” in order to provide a basic foundation for the content of the curriculum. Additional booster classes on new topics can then be provided on an ongoing basis as needed.

Acknowledging the economic hardship that advocates often go through, and the fact that they have been and continue to be overworked and underpaid, it is important to provide financial compensation to those who are asked to take on the added responsibility of implementing a financial literacy curriculum. This compensation has potential to motivate advocates to learn the content and fully embrace the new intervention. To increase the number and quality of financial literacy interventions provided at IPV agencies, program administrators need to support efforts for incorporation of these programs in agency service provision and advocates need to be willing to receive training on financial literacy program implementation. Financial literacy training for advocates can increase advocates’ comfort level with financial education materials and confidence in their ability to teach the materials (Baron-Donovan, Wiener, Gross, & Block-Lieb, 2005). Advocate training has resulted in both an increase in the effectiveness of financial literacy programs for IPV survivors (Sanders & Schnabel, 2006) and has caused advocates to consider new issues in the creation of safety plans for survivors (VonDeLinde, 2005).

Another strategy for optimizing results in the implementation of financial literacy programs with survivors of IPV is to encourage collaboration between IPV agencies and financial institutions. This will alleviate the pressure advocates might feel to learn everything in the curriculum. Depending on other experts to teach certain topics will aid in a more consistent implementation of the content. Finally, a discussion around what is economic empowerment and what is financial literacy should be encouraged. Financial literacy can encompass many topics and can include at the minimum a discussion about one’s assets and liabilities and budgeting concerns.

Limitations

Our examination of the experiences of advocates implementing a financial literacy curriculum in 10 states has uncovered complexities involved in this process, especially when implementing the curriculum with survivors of IPV. However, the findings are not representative of all advocates. Using a larger sample and triangulating the data by engaging in observations and interviews with administrators and participants could be used in future analysis to deepen our understanding of advocates’ experiences in implementing a financial literacy program. Another dimension of the study of financial literacy and economic empowerment that could be explored in the future is a contextualized analysis of the realities of advocates as working women and how their own economic empowerment affects the way they work with survivors. Equally important is the need for examining the relationship between diversity and economic empowerment.

Methodological limitations include possible variation in data collection, since different interviewers conducted each interview according to an interview guide. However, to minimize variation, these trained interviewers worked in collaboration during data collection, participating in frequent team meetings to discuss the process of systematically conducting interviews. In addition, the research group worked systematically during the data analysis phase in order to ensure trustworthiness.

Conclusion

Financial literacy is a potential new intervention that can be used with survivors of IPV as a tool for becoming economically empowered. Social and economic justice needs to be considered a priority in order to come closer to the dream of economic empowerment for women. Thus, developing empowerment-oriented praxis in social work through a feminist lens is crucial, especially when acknowledging that for women to achieve well-being and peace, they need to gain access to economic power at both individual and collective levels. The findings of this study show that in order to implement financial literacy programming successfully, it is important to recognize the particularities of working in settings in which crisis and the need for shelter, protection, and support are present. Also, given that survivors of IPV have different racial, ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds, implementing an economic empowerment curriculum can be complex.

In addition, the findings confirm the importance of being aware of the fact that advocates who work with survivors of IPV may face economic hardship and need to become economically empowered. Thus, it is crucial to include them in the process of developing interventions geared toward economic empowerment, through strategies such as financial literacy for women by providing education and support. Furthermore, it is imperative to continue developing a framework directed to equality and empowerment for both survivors, and those women who join them on their journeys.