Expanding Your Impact: Volunteering in the Nonprofit Space with Kimberly Henne

Kimberly Henne is a board member and financial wellness coach for a local nonprofit, Ways for Life, an organization that works with youth aged 15 - 25 who are touched by foster care or homelessness. 

In this episode we learn more about Kimberly's personal journey with the foster care system - she adopted both of her children out of foster care - as well as some of the unique challenges facing foster youth. We also discuss the opportunity for AFC professionals to marry their skills and passions to serve local nonprofit organizations that have a critical need for high-quality financial counseling and education.

Show Notes:
2:17 How Kimberly discovered the AFC and the military spouse fellowship
3:41 Her transition from the military to the Red Cross
5:04 Into foster care and adopting her children
6:15 Financial counseling in the foster care system
6:57 How she got involved with volunteering
9:16 What are the needs of youth in the foster care system?
12:27 Aging out of the foster care system
 and how to help
14:11 Tracking outcomes and effects of education
15:35 How her experience benefit her in the military community
16:29 Advice for other AFC professionals breaking into the nonprofit
17:29 Kimberly's 2 cents

Show Note Links:
Ways for Life
Kimberly’s LinkedIn
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today's episode is brought to you by Beyond Finance. Beyond Finance is on a mission to help everyday Americans escape the endless cycle of crippling debt and step into a brighter future through compassionate individualized care. They work with clients who have unsustainable debt levels, negotiating with their creditors to reduce their balances to reasonable amounts so that they can reset the relationship with the financial system. The Beyond Finance team is hiring accredited financial counselors to provide clients with one-on-one virtual financial counseling sessions in the areas of budgeting, credit building, and creating a values driven action plan. Positions are remote, offer flexible schedules and require an afc. You'll also receive training unique to areas of debt resolution and financial therapy. If you want to learn more, visit career center dot afc p.org or find the direct link in our show notes. Welcome to Real Money Real Experts, a podcast where leading financial counseling and coaching experts share their stories, their challenges, and their advice for helping people manage money and the real world . I'm your host, Rachel Deleon, executive Director of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education for A F C P E.

Speaker 2: 1:22

And I'm your co-host, Dr. Mary Bell Carlson , an accredited financial counselor, or a ffc , and the President of Financial Behavior Keynote Group. Every episode we're taking a deep dive in the topics that personal finance professionals care about, helping clients, building community, and your professional growth. Today's guest is Kimberly Hiney . Kimberly is an accredited financial counselor and one of the inaugural FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship recipients. From 2006, she has used her AFC as a community readiness specialist with the Air Force Family Readiness Program manager with the Army caseworker with the American Red Cross. And now she uses her AFC as a board member and financial wellness coach for Ways for Life, a nonprofit that works with youth 15 to 25 years old who've been touched by foster care or homelessness. Welcome Kimberly to the show. Thank

Speaker 3: 2:16

You.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Hi Kimberly. Take us back to the beginning. You started your career as an A F C in 2006 with the military Spouse Fellowship. I'm curious, how did you find the A F C and what brought you to this field?

Speaker 3: 2:30

I was working as a victim advocate with family advocacy at the time and just came across through an email that this wonderful spouse, military spouse fellowship was coming out for financial counseling. I was always very interested in financial counseling and just personal finance. A lot of self-taught prior to my afc, lots of reading. Uh, and so I was exceptionally intrigued and applied and was actually quite surprised that I got it.

Speaker 2: 3:02

And so take us from there. Once you got the spouse fellowship, what did you do with it? How did you go about,

Speaker 3: 3:08

After I received the, the fellowship and went through the training and took the test , it took me a little bit to actually take the test to get credentialed. Of course, being a military spouse, we had PCSs in the midst and we had an overseas PCs at the time, so again, it took me a little bit longer, but I used a lot of my hours at the Airman and Family Readiness Center when we were at Aviano and was hired on since I had spent time there, they, I actually received a job from them, a government job, GS job, working on their staff.

Speaker 2: 3:41

And then from there you were able to, because I saw that you were American Red Cross. So how did you transition from the military to the Red Cross? Through

Speaker 3: 3:49

Lots of PCSing and as any military spouse knows where whenever they PCs, they have to remake themselves every single job location just to, you know, what's available. So I actually left government service pre c o , did an early retirement with my current spouse and during C O I D I found myself kind of needing some connection and wanting to do more. So I reached out to the Red Cross and they needed caseworkers so I could do a remote job at home calling veteran and assisting them to find emergency services, assisting them, talking them through their budgeting, where could they find more income, et cetera . And then from there I realized I really wanted that more in-person opportunity again. And I adopted two children out of the foster care system and really found my heart was with this organization, ways for Life and WAYS stands for Wraparound Youth Services. And they actually do wrap around these youth that are aging outta the foster care. And I was able to add a new component to their wraparound services of financial counseling.

Speaker 1: 5:04

Kimberly, I'm curious about your own experience in the foster care system and, and how you came about volunteering and adopting your own two children that way.

Speaker 3: 5:14

Having a biological child was never important to me. We just weren't having children and we were in a place where we could foster. And so we did and decided that we were gonna adopt. We, we had one child that we fostered and then we got our second child and that we adopted our son. And then our daughter came along 11 months later and we adopted her.

Speaker 1: 5:37

That's amazing. And

Speaker 3: 5:39

They're both 25 and 27 and I have my sixth grandchild is on the way.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Oh my goodness. Congratulations.

Speaker 1: 5:47

<laugh> incredible.

Speaker 3: 5:49

That's actually something that we see in the foster care system a lot is many of the youth will have children earlier than others. Statistically, I should say, many of our, you know, we've got youth in our program, I would say about 20 to 30% of them actually have kids already. And we've got about 50 kids in our program, 50 children in our program versus our 300 youth that we have in the program.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I'm curious, when you first approached the nonprofit that you're at right now, you know, I think sometimes programs have capacity already built in where they can hire a financial counselor, build a program, and I'm just curious how you first approached them and suggested this. Was this something that they had put out there as a need? No . And you volunteered to do budgeting or did you bring it forward and see the gap?

Speaker 3: 6:41

I brought it forward as, do you, is this a need? I just reached out to them and said, Hey, you know, I have this skill and I, this is a passion of mine. And they were like, absolutely we can use this. They had not added it to their program, but they didn't have an expert yet.

Speaker 1: 6:58

And I love that. And I think that's sort of a lesson too as , as other AFCs are out there is that, you know, we're all involved in the community and so many different ways and for you that was, you know, foster care was near and dear to your heart and for others it might look a little different, but remembering that skillset that you have and how personal finance touches everything. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So it's really, you know, finding that bridge is sometimes easier than you might think. So you were connected to Ways for Life through your own personal journey with adoption and foster care. How did you first get involved with volunteering and where did you recognize the need?

Speaker 3: 7:37

I heard of this organization, it's a very new organization in our area. They're only three years old and I want , knew I wanted to do something with the foster youth, aging outta foster care. And so I approached them and they said, oh, we've got lots of opportunities and listed these. And I'm like, well my heart really is in personal finance and I'm an accredited financial counselor. Is that something that you can use? And they're like, absolutely, because they were trying to do budgeting but they weren't being as effective as I can be. You

Speaker 1: 8:14

Know, we often talk to nonprofits that don't have personal finance or financial counseling directly connected and it's hard sometimes to build capacity right within the organization. Sometimes they build referral networks. And so I think that's fantastic that they were able to use your experience. I

Speaker 3: 8:32

Work alongside their career pathways program, so I also assist them with their resumes and finding jobs. Do they wanna go to the school? How are we gonna fund schooling? And there's lots of opportunities out there for those youth that are aging out of foster care. There's something called an fyi , a foster youth initiative where they're aging out and they're not just dumped. They actually can get this voucher from the federal government to assist them with their housing. So we also assist them getting the benefits that they need in order to stand on their own two feet, get a job, get an education to essentially become taxpayers off all of the federal benefits.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Kimberly, I'm gonna take a minute and maybe step back and talk about the needs of foster children of maybe homelessness. So those of us that are not in the adoption system or the foster system, we need some perspective about what are the different needs in the foster care system and what is the difference between children in foster care? And I'm assuming that homelessness is also an issue in that area. Can you explain more about

Speaker 3: 9:45

That? Many of our youth come to us, either aging outta foster care or they are out of foster care and did not have anyone to assist them in that transition to standing on their own two feet. So they, many of the students who age outta foster care without that assistance are homeless within the year because they dunno how to balance a budget. They don't have a job, they don't know how to get a job. We have students that come to us that don't have their IDs. So no birth certificate, no social security card, they can't get a driver's license because they don't have those two cards. No one has ever taught them to drive, they don't have a bank account and don't know why they need a bank account. Many of them don't have a G E D because many of these students, if they didn't have the loving care of a foster family that has, has helped them through the years, they don't, they don't have that assistance as your biological family would just carry you through and just help, help you learn. I guess I never even realized that you need to be taught how to keep a house clean or or modeled. You need to be modeled how the grocery shop. And so I have been able to take, and you know , along with doing the budgeting, I've taken them to the bank to get bank to get an account. I've taken them to get a car loan, you know, and how do you evaluate a car loan? One interest rate versus another interest rate. So they just, they need a lot of the assistance that many of us growing up had from our biological families, they didn't have that. So we are there assisting them

Speaker 2: 11:29

And that's really interesting. Obviously we talk about personal finance a lot, so there's a lot of modeling behaviors there, but you're even talking about life skills, basic life skills. And I can see, you know, we hear in , in the foster system, oh yeah, you've got a foster family or adopted, but for a lot of these kids that doesn't happen. It , this is a continual process of multiple homes and getting passed to from system to system or family to family. Tell us about kind of how that works and the impact of that on these children.

Speaker 3: 12:00

Many of our youth have not had that one trusted adult who's gonna show up for them every single day, every single time, no matter what they do. And that is something that we at, at ways are able to do is just sh say, when you're ready, we're here. We are ready for you. We will be there when you need us to help you through this. Whatever situation you may be in. One

Speaker 2: 12:27

Of the things that you are mentioning is, in fact this just came to my attention this year. I went to a conference where we raised some funds for a nonprofit in the area. This was in San Antonio. And we chose to raise money for a foster care system that actually helped kids that aged out. So I wanna spend a little bit of time on this idea of aging out cuz I wasn't familiar with it before we did this. So can you help our listeners understand what does it mean to age out of the foster care system? What happens to them when that does and how can we help in those needs?

Speaker 3: 13:02

Understanding that the foster care system is different in every state. It can be run by nonprofits, it can be run by the state itself. It could be a contract from a nonprofit to the state. Many of these students reach age 18 and can lose their housing. They lose, they could lose that place that they've been living, whether it's a group home, whether in a household. And if they don't have the life skills to say okay, I need a job, I need a place to live. This is how I grocery shop in order to fit my budget. They are living on the streets. Some of them will turn to drugs and alcohol. Some of them may turn to just selling their bodies in order to make food, make you know, raise money for food. Many of them come to us also with mental health concerns because of the traumas that they landed in foster care, the traumas that they received or went through that caused them to go into foster care. We help them get the mental health services as well.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Kimberly, in the work that you do with foster youth, do you ever see any of the educational effects that you make directly with the youth and and how they might affect the larger family?

Speaker 3: 14:22

We track a lot of outcomes and it's very exciting to see, you know, a young, a youth come through and they have some, maybe some fines for some illegal activity, juvenile fines and to see them, you know, they've worked hard and they've paid off their fines and now they can start putting money away in a savings account or we see track , we track outcomes of educationally as well. We had a young woman just today receive a certification that will help her get a better job than just fast food . She actually has a certification that she'll actually be able to grow with. We've seen some of our young people once we help them get into you education just or get that certification, say hey I can do this and decide they wanna get a an associates degree or a bachelor's degree. Just we see amazing things once we can provide these wraparound services of housing and mental health counseling and the financial counseling and helping with a job or G E D et cetera . It's amazing that these what these kids can do.

Speaker 2: 15:35

So I wanna take it back a minute and talk about you've worked in some unique environments and settings and how have what you've seen in the foster care system, how has it also benefited or maybe been similar to what you have seen in the military community?

Speaker 3: 15:51

Oh, interesting question. I would say it's very similar to some of our young airmen and soldiers that we've seen cuz it's the same age group. We know that our young people's brains don't actually fully mature until they're 25 or 27 years old. So a lot of that impulse control may not be there until they're older. But you know, I work with the 15 to 25 year old group and which is very similar to, you know, our young soldiers and young airmen of, you know , and just not being able to balance a budget. They may not, again, not have received any of that extra education from home of life skills.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Kimberly, what advice do you have for other AFC professionals who are looking to expand their impact in the nonprofit space? We're seeing more AFCs, some people are coming to the designation to volunteer in that second retirement chapter. Other people are going through the program and looking for experience hours. What would you just say to someone who's looking for volunteer opportunities

Speaker 3: 16:55

That your A F C is portable and so much can be done with your A F C and the nonprofits need your skills so, so badly. I've come across a number of people don't quite understand what an AFC is and they'll say, oh she's a, she's a financial planner, she's a no, you know, and explain that. But just we can do so much with our AFCs and sharing her skills with youth and helping achieve more in their lives or helping, you know , our seniors when they are on their fixed budget, we can do so much with our AFCs giving back.

Speaker 2: 17:29

Kimberly, I agree there is so much that we have been given as financial counselors and coaches and I think that opportunity to give back what we have been given is such a blessing and a help for others too, right? Because as you have mentioned on this podcast, not everybody has been given that same opportunity. And so I love that you have found ways to give back and I hope that each of the listeners out there finds ways that they can make a difference in their community and in their space. At the end of each interview, we like to ask our guests to share their 2 cents. If you had one piece of advice to leave for our listeners, what would it be?

Speaker 3: 18:04

I would say use your skills to lift up others just to make the world a better place. If you haven't found your niche yet, check out your local nonprofits.

Speaker 1: 18:14

That's great. Thanks for joining us on the show today and tell our listeners where they can connect with you. I'm

Speaker 3: 18:20

Only on LinkedIn but you can also find out more about me on our ways for life.org website and then LinkedIn, Kimberly Smith Heney .

Speaker 2: 18:28

Well thank you Kimberly. It's good meeting you.

Speaker 3: 18:30

Thank you. And you have a great day.

Speaker 2: 18:32

Rachel, this is an interesting topic to me. It is something fairly new to me in my experience, but I've had several friends that have started to look into this or have adopted or have adopted foster children. And I think it's such a fascinating area that is, there's such a need for help in this space. And I wanted her to explain that I was so glad she did about this idea of aging out. I had never understood or heard that concept before and once it got explained to me, I understood this is such a critical need. It's such a formative phase and they're still children. I mean, they're so young when most of the time this happens, you think about it, they're at 17, 18 years old, they are on their own 100% without a support network behind them. But I think everyone needs and deserves a fair chance at life and by supporting kids in this need and there's many others in your area. I love her thought at the end too that she said is reach out for a nonprofit in your area. How can you give back? And that's always something that's weighed heavily on my heart is the fact that I have been given so much education and knowledge and training and we can give back. How do I give back to others who haven't received as much as I? And I think that is something that helps build the community around you and you can do that wherever you're at and with whatever capacity. You may not be able to adopt a foster child today, but you could reach out and help a local nonprofit in some way. Uh, and give your skills the opportunity as well as earn credit hours. I think that was the other part that really struck me at the end is the opportunity to earn your education hours.

Speaker 1: 20:15

Yeah, Mary, I think really resonated with me is when you think of kids that are going through the foster care system is, I don't know the statistics, but how often many of them move from home to home to home. And you know, so much of what we learn are money scripts around personal finance. Those foundational skills are learned in our, in our upbringing. And if your lifestyle is considerably and constantly moving, that makes some of those things that we learned we take for granted. But why I was also glad Kimberly joined us today is I just think her heart is in the right place and she looked where she lives and she looked where she is. And you know, so many of us are involved in our community and so many different ways and personal finance touches hutches everything. And so it's just a really good reminder to ask the questions, to listen, to see where there are gaps and if you have the time and you have the capacity, you know, to, to volunteer. And one of the things she talked about at the end too was looking for candidates to do this work and, and this is something at A F C P E we're continuing to look to do. If there are nonprofits out there that have needs for this type of financial counseling, we have candidates who are always looking for hours . And so this is a really great opportunity, although you're going through the program or if you're an organization looking for support to reach out. And for all of you who are listening, leave us a rating and review if you wanna be on the show. You know, our guest form is on our website, so fill that out. And we have lots of great episodes ahead this season. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.