Forming Healthy Habits

It takes 66 days to form a habit according to ritual.com, but what if you have no one to show you what a healthy habit is.

Twenty-five years ago, I befriended two sisters with several kids each. In the beginning of the relationship, I often scheduled times to meet with them, only to find when I arrived, they were not home. After several of these experiences, I asked them why this kept happening. One of them immediately told me, “We aren’t used to people doing what they say they are going to do. We never thought you were really going to show up.” 

I have thought of this comment a lot recently as we have started working with 18- to 24-year-olds experiencing homelessness through a HUD pilot program to stabilize their lives. HUD will provide rent assistance while we provide supportive services to teach the life skills needed to maintain housing and employment. So far, one of our biggest challenges has been the young adults not showing up for appointments. Many of them have aged out of foster care and experienced lives of broken promises. It is now up to us to demonstrate consistency and help them develop the basic habits of successful living.

Through the years, we have helped hundreds of people learn sound financial habits. The joy of walking alongside someone to financial stability and flourishing cannot be overstated. I still remember when one of our first clients threw her arms around me and said, “I used to love to spend and now I love to save.” I’ve also never forgotten a graduate of our Extra Mile money management program ringing our joy bell and shouting that not only did she know what a FICO score was but so did her children!

Tasha Fisher, Path Forward manager, coordinates our HUD pilot program to enhance the lives of young adults.

HUD Housing Counseling includes budgeting, credit building, and steps to achieve housing stability and homeownership. Pictured above, Love Columbia HUD housing counseling team.

Starting Early

Through the years, we have pressed into new “habit-forming” territory. After noticing that parents often overspent because of pleas from their children, we added kid’s activities to our adult financial coaching material. We knew we had to get the kids to join the “needs versus wants” team and rewarded parents for including their children in budgeting and saving activities.

We replicated this approach when we established our Extra Mile Homes transitional housing program. We had expectations for parents to keep the house clean and tidy and provided them with ideas about how to get their children involved in age-appropriate chores.

Later, when parents wanted to learn activities to strengthen their families, volunteers helped us develop monthly activity kits for families to use together to promote regular family time.

We hope we are helping kids form great habits early on – how to budget money, keep a house clean and live and play together as a family.

Our Latest Habit Frontier: Creating Beauty

At a recent staff meeting, we discussed the value of beauty in our lives. We pause in nature, with art or music, and our load seems lighter and our thoughts brighter. What if we cultivated a habit of creating beauty? What if we provided the opportunity for our clients to create beauty when they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Would this help them develop a habit of looking for and creating beauty in the midst of difficult situations and dark times? We threw out the idea of providing coloring books and colored pencils for clients who wanted to try the beauty option to de-stress and reset their thinking. Two days later, to our surprise, a representative from The Food Bank stopped by the office and asked if we could use 15 cases of adult coloring books (96 books each).

We are all set to begin helping people form habits of creating beauty in the mist of stress. If you are a creator of beauty of any kind, please come share your ideas and skills. We may find that beauty is step one and all the other healthy habits soon follow. Doesn’t every day begin with a beautiful sunrise?

Stay Fascinated,

Jane Williams

Financial Habits

Robert Reid, an Extra Mile Homes graduate celebrated two years of financial stability by sending a text with a picture of his Extra Mile financial coaching notebook and these words: “This is my everyday life navigator.”

S'Riyyah alongside her Extra Mile coach, Nadia Ryakhmyatullov, said of her experience, “The Extra Mile program has helped me by offering me support and holding me accountable financially through the various exercises.”

More Interest in Credit Scores

A higher credit score has become much more important to secure a rental or purchase a home in our current housing market. As more people are engaging with us to raise their credit score, they discover the importance of establishing financial routines and paying bills on time.

In the past 12 months, we have served 483 clients and provided 655 coaching sessions.

Enjoy Art Created by our Unhoused Neighbors

Love Columbia is partnering with David Webber, political science professor and columnist, to showcase art at the downtown Love Columbia office building.

Thomas Foster has lived in Columbia since 2002. Thomas was inspired to create art after watching family members pursue various art forms, from carpentry to painting. Currently, he enjoys creating with whatever supplies are at hand. 

"Making art is restful for me. I enjoy getting to put headphones on and listen to music, take out a pencil, make a line, and see what happens from there. I hope that when people look at my art they enjoy it, and it inspires them to do something of their own."

Seeking Hobbyists

When we surveyed single parents experiencing homelessness or housing instability about their unmet needs, they surprised us by giving high priority to learning activities to strengthen their families and learning skills that could become hobbies. If you have a hobby you would like to share with others in a one-time class or ongoing group, please email: volunteer@lovecolumbia.org.

Love Columbia volunteer, Neita Collins, guiding a young artist through a painting.

Special Giving Opportunity

Join our Monthly Giving Program and double your impact! An extraordinary opportunity awaits when you pledge a monthly donation for a year: a kind-hearted anonymous donor will match your entire year's contribution.

Plus, there's more! By pledging at least $20 a month, you'll receive a complimentary Love Columbia t-shirt delivered right to your doorstep.

A $5 monthly pledge to Love Columbia immediately transforms into an extra $60 matching gift for Love Columbia, thanks to our generous donor's matching commitment. Together, we can make a significant impact on the lives of our neighbors right here in Columbia.