Financial Health Institute

The Human Services Essentials Program is designed to prepare human service professionals to apply skills, knowledge, and attitudes across diverse practice settings, while building program capacity so as to offer clients the highest quality care and support.  HS Essentials: Getting Started is for staff who are new to human services. Courses include: A Holistic Approach to the Human Services System The core purposes for human services programs The importance of taking a person-in-environment view when working with clients Identifying the interrelationships of life domains, and aspects of the environment that impact a client’s ability to meet their own needs   Working with the Person within the System Person-centered approaches, strength-based case management, and using active listening, reflections and open-ended questions The role of personal values, basics of confidentiality and boundaries, and creating an initial self-care plan   Accountable Case Management in a Person-Centered/Data-Driven Organization Understanding the continuous cycle of case management practices and a conceptual framework that supports clients in their transition to self-sufficiency Basic technical writing and digital literacy   Working with the Context of Poverty and Economic Barriers in Human Services Viewing poverty in context, defining and measuring poverty, and difficulties of living just above income thresholds Read more

In this course, we’ll discuss the process of building on your assets to cushion economic shocks and grow your financial health. Read more

This series of six courses was created with Avani Dilger to reinforce your Motivational Interviewing skills and understanding of concepts through creative activities, videos, downloadable resources and opportunities to practice what you’ve learned in basic MI training. Courses include: The Spirit of Motivational Interviewing Building Your Skills with the Elements of MI MI for Short Moments Blending MI with Other Tasks MI for Self Care Asking Powerful Questions   Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, CACIII, ADS is a certified Addiction Counselor Supervisor, a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Somatic Psychotherapist and an Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist who works in substance abuse treatment with adults, teens-at-risk, and their families. She is the founder of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives for Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit prevention/intervention program that teaches teens & adults to be leaders around healthy lifestyles and is a program built on Motivational Interviewing. She is passionate about effective ways of supporting people with issues of resistance and ambivalence and is a member of the International Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Read more

This course will help you to recognize and understand the dynamic effects of economic trauma and abuse, and provide you with suggestions for how to work with financial health tools to help survivors stabilize and thrive. Read more

Learn about the cognitive processes of decision making that affect how we achieve our goals, and how distractions and feelings of scarcity interfere with that, plus gain some tools to help people improve their decision making even while experiencing distractions and scarcity. Read more

After you finish your coursework, there are strategies for managing student loan repayment. Read more