Supporting your mental health through building financial wellness
Financial challenges can have widespread effects — creating emotional distress and anxiety, limiting social interactions, restricting access to community events and resources, and even worsening physical health. Limited income or restrictions from a representative payee or financial conservator, combined with a lack of financial literacy, make it hard for people to learn how to manage their money. People in recovery may have been told that it is unrealistic to plan financial wellness goals. They may be discouraged by their experiences of financial struggles, leading to hopelessness. Financial education and support can help people develop money-management skills and learn about credit repair options that could help them get out of this spiral of financial difficulties.
Building Financial Wellness is a peer-developed, peer-led curriculum designed for people with mental health and/or substance use issues to increase their sense of control over their personal finances, develop the knowledge they need to better manage the financial resources they have, and use tools to improve their overall financial situation. Building Financial Wellness helps people learn together and share experiences to reframe self-defeating narratives.
This workshop will highlight this exciting new program. People in recovery, peer providers, and others who have developed, implemented, and benefited from the program will share testimonies and inspiration to help workshop participants consider how and where to access and share the program to build hope and empower others.
Join Mental Health America the University of Illinois Chicago and members of the Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSPNJ) for this free, 60-minute webinar where participants will learn to:
- Define 2-3 needs for focusing on financial wellness as a strategy to positively engage others and impact short- and long-term recovery.
- Access the financial wellness guide for facilitators and a workbook for participants to be able to use or run the six-session course.
Meet the speakers
Nerissa Jones is the manager of New Dimensions, Community Wellness Center, CSPNJ, Salem County, New Jersey. Jones has worked at CSPNJ for 18 years and completed the CSPNJ Peer Support Specialist training in 2020 and CRSP 2015. She completed the Building Financial Wellness program in 2021.
Adam Chrone is the Manager of the Park Avenue Community Wellness Center, CSPNJ Plainfield, New Jersey. Chrone participated in the CSPNJ Peer Support Specialist training and Building Financial Wellness program in 2022. Adam has a plethora of lived experience to call upon when aiding those facing challenges in mental health, substance abuse, homelessness, and reintegration. He is a strong advocate for displaced individuals as he himself was once displaced. He looks forward to making even bigger impacts within his community while continuing his support of the Park Ave CWC membership.
George H. Brice Jr., MSW, has worked for many years in a variety of roles including coordinator of a peer recovery and wellness education program, wellness coach, wellness trainer, and supported education and employment specialist. Brice worked 10 years on faculty, including Rutgers University. Brice works for Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey, Inc.-CSPNJ as a part-time program development specialist. Brice earned associate degrees in criminal justice/psychology at Burlington County College and both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work at Rutgers University-Camden.
Peggy Swarbrick, Ph.D., FAOTA, has worked for many years at CSPNJ, where she developed the strengths-based eight-dimensional wellness model to promote recovery from mental health and substance use. She is known for collaborating with the peer community and family groups to identify and address social determinants that are barriers to recovery and wellness. Peggy is also a Professor in The Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and Associate Director of the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies.