Current MMS Sites
17th Judicial District
Covering Blaine, Phillips, and Valley Counties, Tom Anderson is providing financial literacy training and workshops to youth in the Juvenile Court system to other rural community members. He mentors, gives classes and community presentations, recruits volunteers to help facilitate, develops resources, and adapts curricula to address individual and community financial education. At a recently completed workshop, participants discussed the relationship between personal value systems and financial management habits.
American Indian Business Leaders
Leia Loonsfoot is creating a website that will provide interactive, assessable financial education for American Indian K-12 and college students; it will also include links to resources and curricula and will allow participants to connect with mentors. She is working with AIBL chapters across the state.
Browning Community Development Corporation
Elva Dorsey is implementing the Building Native Communities curriculum, tailoring it to provide the basics of financial education to Browning and Blackfeet reservation residents. She has been doing a lot of free tax preparation and tax rebate counseling. Her primary focus is on improving savings and budgeting habits among participants.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service, Butte
Mike and Shelli Merino are providing credit counseling services and implementing budgeting, first time home-buying, and debt management classes. They are also doing outreach to members of the armed forces, offering financial management workshops and counseling.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service, Great Falls
Steve Cape is educating beneficiaries about financial management, providing credit counseling services, and implementing budgeting, first time home-buying, and debt management classes. He also teaches at Great Falls’ alternative high school, and works with the pre-release program and area drug court to provide financial management classes to offenders
Consumer Credit Counseling Service, Missoula
Rachael Sherman offers credit counseling services, teaches first-time home-buying classes around Missoula, and teaches budgeting and debt management classes. She is currently working on developing partnerships with area High Schools to guest-teach financial management classes.
homeWORD
Rebecca Powers is working with homeWORD's financial management program. She teaches first time homebuyers classes as well as Financial Fitness classes that cover general financial management concepts.
Native American Development Corporation
Darrell LaMere is providing American Indian-specific financial education workshops, working with traditional customs to enhance his trainings. He is utilizing an interactive education approach to better inform his beneficiaries. He is also certified as a Volunteer Income Tax Preparer in order to help low-income individuals prepare their tax returns at no charge. Darrell’s primary goal is to give his participants a sustainable awareness of their finances; he will do this by providing practical tools to engender the idea that we have power over our finances, rather than that our financial situation has power over us.
Missoula Aging Services
Donna Syvertson was working with Missoula Aging Services and AARP of Montana to enhance EITC and free-tax-preparation awareness in the Missoula area. She was also working with people who qualify for EITC on money management strategies for their tax refunds. Her primary goal was to bring in $550,000 in tax refunds to low- and moderate-income individuals and their families. Donna surpassed that goal by a long shot this year!
Montana United Indian Association
Dallas Orlowski is offering classes to Helena's youth. A high-schooler, he is working to increase financial literacy among his peers around Helena and its surrounding rural areas.
The Poverello Center
Jenny Vazquez is working with residents and other clients of the Poverello Center, Joseph Residence, and Valor House, currently surveying people to find out what kind of financial education they feel would best help them in their particular situations. She will be offering budgeting, and credit status and repair assistance. She is working with MM$ members at Missoula Aging Services, CCCSMT, the Student Assistance Foundation, and with the Missoula Work Force Agency, and the city and county of Missoula on outreach.
The Student Assistance Foundation
Norma Nulliner is offering debt and credit management counseling to University of Montana students and offering budgeting workshops in the U of M dorms. She hopes to reduce the number of UM students who graduate with overwhelming debts (either in the form of credit card debts or student loans) and to increase the number of college students who are able to manage their finances.
University Villages
Sean Morrison is working at University Villages, providing free financial management counseling to residents. He is focusing on helping people pay bills and rent on time.
