For Individuals

A Fresh Start Method certification

A Fresh Start Method was built inside a working program, tested on real residents facing real financial and life-skill barriers, refined over sixteen years since Fresh Start Housing’s founding in 2009. 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.

Two paths, one credential

If you work in case management, reentry coordination, or a related field: Certification sharpens what you’re already doing. You bring the Method’s structure, the five pillars, and its underlying theoretical framework directly into your current role, giving you a sharper, more consistent approach to the people you already serve.

If you’re building toward something of your own: Certification is the credibility foundation for launching your own program down the road. You learn the framework the same way it was built, through direct mentorship, so you carry real depth into whatever you eventually create rather than a surface-level familiarity with someone else’s ideas.

Both paths lead to the same certification. What you do with it is yours to decide.

How certification works

Certification is 1:1, not cohort-based. You work directly with Sandra Roussel, founder of Fresh Start Housing and A Fresh Start Method, through a mentorship track paced to your background and experience rather than a fixed calendar. Most candidates complete certification in three to six months, moving through the framework at the pace their own readiness allows, the same non-restrictive, observation-before-goals approach the Method itself is built on.

The process moves through four stages.

Application. You submit the form below with information about your background and what you’re hoping to get from certification.

Discovery conversation. We talk through your experience and goals to confirm the certification track is the right fit before moving forward.

Agreement. Every certification candidate signs an agreement covering use, attribution, and confidentiality before mentorship begins. This protects the integrity of the Method as much as it protects your standing as a certified practitioner.

Mentorship and certification. You move through the framework directly with Sandra, at a pace suited to your background, until you’ve demonstrated the readiness certification requires.

Certification cost

Every candidate’s background and pace are different, so certification isn’t priced as a flat fee. Contact us to discuss what a certification track would look like for you.

Apply