Role
Instructional Designer, E-Learning Specialist
Tools
MS Office (Word, PowerPoint), Box Inc., Canva, Articulate Suite (Rise & Storyline), Camtasia, Vyond, Zoom
Need
Roughly 30,000 adolescents in the United States age out of the foster care system each year with no permanent family or safety net. Without that support, they face a higher likelihood of homelessness, incarceration, and unstable employment. Staff and facilitators who work with these youth, including those in short-term residential therapeutic program (STRTP) settings, needed both stronger financial knowledge of their own and practical tools to lead financial empowerment discussions with transition-age youth (TAY). The Twinspire learning pathway needed to be structured, engaging, and easy to follow so that facilitators could build their own confidence first and then adapt the content for the young people they serve.
In-Person Events
Course Launch Event – June 15, 2026
Youth Financial Empowerment Summit – July 31, 2026
Solution
As the instructional designer and e-learning specialist, I led the design and development of Twinspire: Financial Foundations for Empowering Futures, a learning pathway that strengthens facilitators’ financial knowledge while preparing them to guide youth toward financial empowerment. I structured the course into three milestones: a facilitator milestone that builds foundational skills and readiness, a youth milestone covering budgeting, savings, credit, and investing, and a facilitator wrap-up milestone focused on reflection and evaluation. I built the e-learning experience around the learning objectives, so facilitators practice creating a personal budget, identifying savings strategies, and analyzing credit use. They also apply financial concepts to real-life TAY scenarios such as planning for expenses, avoiding debt traps, and preparing for future goals. To support delivery in STRTP settings, I designed activities that show facilitators how to turn course content into interactive discussions, hands-on activities, and relatable examples. The pathway also teaches facilitators to model strengths-based financial decision-making and to evaluate youth learning through reflective discussion, observation, and simple assessment tools.
Results
The milestone-based design gives facilitators a clear, repeatable path from building their own financial literacy to leading youth workshops and measuring what youth learned. Facilitators leave prepared to deliver engaging, age-appropriate financial education that helps foster youth build confidence and resilience in managing their money. The project strengthened my ability as an instructional designer and e-learning specialist to turn complex financial concepts into practical, learner-centered training for facilitators serving vulnerable youth populations.
