For Jamilah, there’s no turning back.
The Philadelphian recently celebrated two years in recovery and moved into a new apartment. She’s on a path to full-time employment and, eventually, homeownership. To get there, she’s utilizing Clarifi’s counseling services to become financially resilient.
Since working with a financial empowerment counselor at Clarifi, Jamilah said her relationship with money “changed dramatically.”
For one, she developed a savings mindset: Instead of spending, she deposits extra funds into her bank account – “Because there may be an emergency that I need a lump sum for,” Jamilah said. “That’s me looking at money different.”
She learned to separate needs from wants, cut down on expenses, and pay off loans faster to save on interest.
“Working with my counselor has allowed me to pay more attention to my money,” Jamilah said. “Right now, I have more money than I normally would because of my budget.”
The grant she received from Clarifi also helped her stabilize and follow the budget she established with her counselor.
“It’s a motivation for me,” she said of the grant. “It’s not, ‘What else can I get?’ It’s moving me to want to do better and gain my own stability, so I don’t have to rely on grants.”
Jamilah is passing down the financial knowledge she learned at Clarifi to her 11-year-old son.
He has a weekly allowance, and, like her counselor, Jamilah guides him on his spending decisions: She’ll caution that if he stops at the store every day for an after-school snack, he won’t have any money left by the end of the week. Or when he has a debt to pay off, he has to budget for it.
“I’m holding him accountable for his own expenses,” she said.
Clarifi’s combination of cash and counseling is helping Jamilah focus on long-term goals, like buying her first home. It’s in her five-year plan.
For now, she’s working on becoming a certified recovery specialist and serving her local community as a volunteer.
“When I needed the help, people helped me,” Jamilah said of her own journey. “Being in recovery opens the door for a lot of things, and it puts clarity in my eyes. All I want to do is move forward.”