200 BROOKLYN NEWS WWW.BROOKLYN-USA.ORG FINANCIAL FITNESS When considering the many facets
of wellness, personal finances may
not be the most obvious focus for improving
emotional and physical health
outcomes. But in fact, according to the
Journal of the American Osteopathic
Association, between 75 and 90 percent
of all doctor visits are stress-related.
Based on research found in the 2017
Global Benefits Attitudes Survey released
by Willis Towers Watson, a growing
proportion of workers — 34 percent
— cited financial issues as negatively
impacting their lives. This also translated
to lower productivity and general
unhappiness, with 30 percent of those
concerned with finances reporting their
health as “poor.”
Financial stress is a well-documented
risk factor for many chronic shortterm
health issues such as memory and
concentration suppression, increased
heart rate and blood pressure, and a reduction
of metabolism.
In the long term, such stresses have
been found to increase the risk of heart
disease, stroke, digestive problems,
and sexual dysfunction. It can also lead
to unhealthy weight loss or gain, skin
problems, sleep issues, increased pain,
and worsening diabetes.
To manage stress, medical professionals
recommend exercising three
times a week for at least 30 minutes,
deep breathing, meditation, adequate
sleep, and maintaining a healthy diet.
These steps will help to avoid unhealthy
behaviors, release endorphins into the
brain, and lower blood pressure.
Borough President Adams has
worked with a number of communitybased
organizations on expanding financial
literacy and reducing financerelated
stress in Brooklyn. Here are a
few of his partners’ thoughts on financial
fitness:
Operation Hope
Operation Hope is an international
organization that works to provide financial
education and economic empowerment
programming to low- and
moderate-income youth, individuals,
and families in underprivileged communities.
Programs offered include support
for starting a small business, credit
score improvement services, free credit
report generation, and training on how
to reduce personal debt.
“My role as a financial wellness
coach means that I get to speak to thousands
of people across Brooklyn who
need help with their finances,” said
Rachel Hood, financial management
counselor at Operation Hope. “I see a
direct correlation between financial fitness
and emotional and physical health.
Borough President Adams announced a boroughwide challenge to tackle the borough’s consumer debt crisis at the
launch of his second annual Brooklyn Financial Education Empowerment Month, which he proclaims every April.
When somebody comes to me with significant
financial issues, they are also
talking to me about not being able to
sleep at night, not eating well, or having
to make difficult choices that are wearing
them down.”
To contact Operation Hope, get in
touch with Rachel Hood by emailing rachel.
hood@operationhope.org or calling
(646) 491-0668.
Junior Achievement of
New York
Junior Achievement of New York
is a programmatic organization with
a mission of helping young people
prepare for the real world by showing
them how to generate wealth and
effectively manage it. They also teach
childen how to create jobs that will
make their communities more robust
as well as how to apply entrepreneurial
thinking to the workplace.
Training takes place in school districts
across the country including in
Brooklyn. Their classroom volunteers
come from all walks of life including
academia, business, community leaders,
parents, and retirees reaching
more than 4.8 million students annually
in more than 200,000 classrooms
and after-school programs, including
85,000 students across the New York
City metropolitan area.
Junior Achievement of New York’s
mission is to teach young people the
skills that allow them to grow into
adults that are empowered, healthy, and
skilled with financial resources for future
success.
“There’s been a lot of research done
on the connection between stress and
health problems,” said Joseph Peri,
president at Junior Achievement of New
York. “When your budget is stressed,
you may not feel as healthy and you
may even experience health problems.
Ultimately, my message to Brooklynites
is if you think your finances are causing
damage to your health, don’t internalize
it and seek out help.”
To contact Junior Achievement of
New York, email Diana Lee, their senior
director of programs, at dlee@jany.org
or visit jany.org.
W!SE
w!se is an educational non-profit that
works to educate young people about financial
literacy, as well as college and
career readiness, providing services to
students, educators, and at-risk adults.
They work to empower students,
particularly the underprivileged, to have
a successful financial future that will
enable them to compete in the global
Photo Credit: Kathryn Kirk/Brooklyn BP’s Office:
economy. Their website offers a financial
literacy certification test that can
be administered by participating high
schools at the conclusion of a taught
course or unit on personal finance.
One particular component of w!se’s
mission is to combat economic abuse in
the form of domestic violence and abusive
relationships. Nearly all domestic
violence survivors say their abusers
impact their access to their finances,
which leads to stress-related health
issues, long-term damage to credit history
and access to bank accounts.
w!se offers a 12-week course on
personal finance that culminates in the
MoneyW!SE Financial Literacy Certification
Test, which helps survivors find jobs.
“For our domestic violence survivors,
it can be very stressful and difficult particularly
if you do not have the means
or strategy to leave the situation,” said
Christine Nguyen, college and career
readiness counselor at W!SE. “One of
the reasons domestic violence victims
are kept in that situation is they are financially
abused. That’s what we work
to fight by empowering them to have the
tools to leave that situation and be fully
independent.”
To contact w!se, email info@wise-ny.
org or call (212) 421-2700.