Tout (1997) made an argument I think about often: the phrase "critical numeracy" shouldn't need to exist. Real numeracy, properly defined, already includes critical thinking. Adding the word "critical" in...
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A Fresh Start Method
A Building With Four Walls And Tomorrow Inside
Most program models start with a theory and try to fit people into it. A Fresh Start Method started the other way around. It grew out of seventeen years of direct, daily work with people rebuilding their lives after incarceration, addiction, or homelessness, inside a single nine-bed transitional housing program in Richmond, Indiana.
The Method
A Fresh Start Method developed from years of working directly with people rebuilding their lives after incarceration, addiction, or homelessness.
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For Individuals
Individual certification gives you direct, personal training in that framework through a 1:1 mentorship track, not a self-paced course or a weekend workshop.
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For Organizations
If you operate crisis housing, support, or a transition people through crisis, you already know the gap between having good intentions and an effective system.
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Where Real Transformation Begins
A Fresh Start Method
A Fresh Start Method was developed inside a single nine-bed program, but its design was never limited to that scale. Organizations that want to move beyond delivering services toward producing measurable, lasting outcomes can license the framework, the training behind it, and the practical tools that support each stage.
This isn’t a manual you read once and implement alone. It’s a method built on judgment, sequencing, and relationship, and licensing includes the training to put it into practice with fidelity.
Resource Library
The Debt That Was Never a Choice
Some of the residents who come through Fresh Start Housing arrive already carrying debt they never agreed to. Pogrebin et al. (2014) documented this precisely for returning citizens: parole fees,...
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Numeracy vs. genuine financial literacy
Foundations: Two Kinds of NumeracyThere are two very different things people mean when they say "numeracy," and financial literacy programs almost never distinguish between them. Merriam-Webster (2023) defines numeracy as...
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