Your Money, Your Goals: Focus on Re-entry

The Focus on Re-entry companion guide helps frontline staff help their clients:  

• identify financial challenges to successful transition,  

• create goals and identify steps to achieve them,  

• obtain documents related to identification to help ease the transition process,  

• identify and prioritize their debt—both debt arising from their involvement in the criminal justice system (criminal justice debt) and consumer debt,  

• access and review credit reports, and 

• understand individual rights to obtain and review criminal background screening records during the employment application process. 

Both the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide contain the following:  

• Narrative information to provide the frontline staff and volunteers with information about financial education and consumer financial protection issues.  

• Tools designed and written for the people you serve. You can copy the tools for clients to use or take with them.  

Since successful re-entry efforts begin during incarceration, the companion guide can be used anytime while awaiting trial or sentencing, in jail or prison, serving a sentence, or following release. When using this companion guide, you should refer to the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit as the main document.

If you are not already familiar with or trained on the toolkit, we suggest reviewing the toolkit as the first step. Focus on Re-entry provides additional or substitute narrative information and tools to that of the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit. This companion guide addresses the special issues faced by the justice-involved individuals you serve. The guide tracks the modules as they appear in the main toolkit.  

The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide can be used in one-on-one or small group settings. There are also a variety of companion guides and tools that are designed for the needs of different audiences.  These guides and tools can all be found on the Your Money, Your Goals companion guide website.

Both the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide contain: 

• narrative information to provide the frontline staff and volunteers with information about financial education and consumer financial protection issues. 
• tools designed and written for the people you serve. You can copy the tools for clients to use or take with them. 

Since successful re-entry efforts begin during incarceration, the companion guide can be used anytime while someone is awaiting trial or sentencing, in jail or prison, serving a sentence, or following release. When using this companion guide, you should refer to the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit as the main document. If you are not already familiar with or trained on the toolkit, we suggest reviewing the toolkit as the first step. Focus on Re-entry provides additional or substitute narrative information and tools to that of the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit. This companion guide addresses the special issues faced by the justice-involved individuals who you serve. The guide tracks the modules as they appear in the main toolkit. 

The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide can be used in one-on-one or small group settings. The contents of the companion guide About The Toolkit and Re-entry Companion Guide 7 can and should be accessed as needed based on the priorities and situations of the individuals being helped. The materials—implementation guide, training power points, referral guide template, and pre- and post-surveys—can all be found on the Your Money, Your Goals web page.

Reaching Re-entry: The CFPB has participated in the Federal Interagency Re-entry Council, which was established in 2011 by the Department of Justice, and includes 20 federal agencies 

The Federal Interagency Re-entry Council is working towards their mission to: 

• make communities safer by reducing recidivism and victimization, 
• assist those who return from prison and jail in becoming productive citizens, 
• save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration. 

A chief focus of the Re-entry Council is to remove federal barriers to successful re-entry, reducing recidivism and high correctional costs and improving access to jobs, housing, education, and other key reintegration outcomes. Many of these barriers and outcomes have financial challenges attached to them. 

The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide do not address all the issues individuals face as part of the re-entry process. The last section of the companion guide refers to useful resources on several other topics relevant to re-entry such as access to benefits and housing. These resources were developed by the Re-entry Council or other government agencies to help people in transition.

Get the complete Your Money, Your Goals guide and Focus on Re-entry companion guide.

The National Re-entry Resource Center is administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Justice Administration (BJA).  It is the nation’s primary source of information and guidance on re-entry. 

 The National Re-entry Resource Center works to:  

• advance the knowledge base of the re-entry field, 

• facilitate information exchange, 

• promote what works in re-entry, 

• provide information for people returning to their families and communities. 

A chief focus of the Re-entry Council is to remove federal barriers to successful re-entry, to not only reduce recidivism and high correctional costs but also to improve access to jobs, housing, education, and other key reintegration outcomes. Many of these barriers and outcomes have financial challenges attached to them.  

The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and Focus on Re-entry companion guide do not address all the issues individuals face as part of the re-entry process. The last section of the companion guide refers to useful resources on several other topics relevant to re-entry such as access to benefits and housing. These resources were developed to help people in transition. 

• The complete Your Money, Your Goals toolkit
• Focus on Re-entry: Criminal Justice companion guide
• In addition to the re-entry guide, the National Re-entry Resource Center website provides a wealth of information. It has information on topics such as housing, criminal records, substance use treatment, and many others.