{"id":58729,"date":"2025-11-24T13:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/58729\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T13:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:13:06","slug":"financial-literacy-program-helps-veterans-in-central-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/58729\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial literacy program helps veterans in Central Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A new program is helping local veterans take charge of their finances after returning to civilian life.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

The Heart of Florida United Way \u201cMission United\u201d<\/a>\u00a0offers free workshops for veterans, covering everything from budgeting to tools to become a homeowner
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Mission United started in South Florida, and it\u2019s now extended throughout the state with more than 12 locations. In Orlando, the program just celebrated its 10th anniversary, with the goal of assisting veterans and connecting them with resources and benefits available to them
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The financial literacy workshops officially started in August 2025. So far, more than 150 veterans have attended
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Beyond financial education, the program offers a variety of other services like housing assistance, education, and much more<\/p>\n

The initiative led by the\u00a0Heart of Florida United Way \u201cMission United\u201d<\/a>\u00a0offers free workshops, covering everything from budgeting to tools to become a homeowner.<\/p>\n

For more than two decades, Jeniffer Hutchinson-Fernandez has been helping veterans adjust to civilian life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGot off active duty 21 years ago, and I\u2019ve dedicated my life to helping my fellow brothers and sisters in arms for the last 21 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the last seven years, she has been working as a case manager for the Heart of Florida United Way \u201cMission United\u201d alongside Norris Henderson. They are both veterans and know firsthand what\u2019s like walking that path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what veterans go through because we are veterans. A lot of times veterans want to talk to other veterans that have walked the path, having served in the military,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n

Mission United started in South Florida, and it\u2019s now extended all throughout the state with more than 12 locations. In Orlando, the program just celebrated its 10th anniversary, with the goal of assisting veterans and connecting them with resources and benefits available to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur program is very unique because it connects veterans with an array of different resources when it comes to food insecurity, legal issues, employment, education, we are like the center piece for resources for veterans here in Central Florida,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n

One of the programs offered is a financial literacy workshop, which officially started in August 2025. So far, more than 150 veterans have attended these workshops.<\/p>\n

Commander of\u00a0American Legion Post 331<\/a>\u00a0Larry Colleton was among those who participated in one of the recent workshops, where veterans learned about budgeting, financial tools, and planning for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program really offers a great opportunity to sort of develop that discipline,\u201d Colleton said. \u201cMilitary members, veterans are about following orders, about essentially being very focused, and so we want to get them to focus on their financial literacy because this is for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said not every military member serves up to the moment they are eligible to receive retirement benefits, so when they go into\u00a0the workforce, having the necessary financial knowledge helps them achieve their goals as they adjust to civilian life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome are not homeowners, and they are looking at how they can become homeowners. Some have had some financial challenges, and they are looking at how, what are the options, you know how you address it. And this program offers them the means to really look at what\u2019s out there, what\u2019s available to them,\u201d Colleton said.<\/p>\n

He said they have these financial literacy sessions at least three to six times a year, and their goal is to become a hub for financial literacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cInviting more and more veterans, not just simply legionnaires,\u201d Colleton said. \u201cThere are countless numbers of veterans out there that are not affiliated with veteran service organizations, they are just out there. We want to make sure that we can sort of kind of reach out.”<\/p>\n

Beyond financial education, the program offers a variety of other services.<\/p>\n

Veterans can call or text 2-1-1 to receive assistance and get connected with a Mission United case manager. Someone who can listen to those on the other side and understand what they go through.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a veteran myself, so I understand,\u201d Hutchinson-Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

They partner with various veteran organizations across Central Florida to assist with housing, employment, education and other services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll ask them about their housing, their utilities, any resources out there that’s available I\u2019m going to let them know because, unfortunately, a lot of veterans aren’t aware of what’s available to them,\u201d Hutchinson-Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

With every call, she takes pride in helping veterans who reach out.\u00a0Assuring them always that on this side of the phone, someone is willing to help.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, it will be after one o\u2019clock and I\u2019ll reach out to you, but you will hear back from me today,\u201d she said on the phone to a veteran who had called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A new program is helping local veterans take charge of their finances after returning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3076,25157,1011,274,1548,1190,766,115,1335,139,141,140,278,3393,27351],"class_list":{"0":"post-58729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-app-honoring-our-veterans","10":"tag-app-human-interest","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-good-news","13":"tag-human-interest","14":"tag-massiel-leyva","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-orlando-headlines","19":"tag-orlando-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-veterans","22":"tag-veterans-month"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}