The smiling woman walks up to Steve Bonzell, seated at a park bench outside a Folsom transitional center on a sunny autumn afternoon, and gives him the good news.

“I passed,” she says, prompting a high five from Bonzell and some good-natured teasing.

“Oh wow. I think I’m going to take all the credit on this one,” Bonzell joked, before making sure his proud pupil plans to attend next week’s class.

Bonzell, a First Bank branch manager in Roseville, is one of four bank employees teaching financial basics to residents of Powerhouse Ministries’ family transition center, a “grace-based” shelter that emphasizes the needs of children in helping homeless families get back on their feet.

This particular student just completed a certified nursing program that will provide her reentry into the employment sector. Another member of the class recently used her skills to get a better-paying job so she could build her savings. Still another waved down Bonzell to tell him she successfully applied for unemployment benefits.

For the women at the heart of these modest success stories, the struggle to achieve financial stability and independence is relatable to just about everyone these days.

“This economy — and you’re hearing this from a banker — this economy brought people to their knees. Every day, every day I see someone come in and say, ‘Steve, what am I going to do?’” Bonzell said. “There’s a lot of staring-at-the-ceiling going on.”

For Bonzell, who taught a similar program to Placer County homeless the past four years, the educational program is a chance to teach financial pragmatism in a country financial experts say lost touch with basic economic values like thrift and saving for a rainy day.

“And boy, is it raining,” Bonzell quips.

“We just came through a period of time where we purchased things and figured out how to pay for them later,” says Jordan Amin, chair of a national Financial Literacy Commission run through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. “I think we are relearning those very basic financial habits.”

Amin’s commission spearheads both 360FinancialLiteracy.org and FeedthePig.org, where people can receive general financial information, download free webinars and find or request informational workshops nationwide. The workshops typically address specific topics, from personal finance and investment planning to saving for college and retirement. Feed the Pig was created in 2006 to help young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 live within their means. The program now also spreads the gospel of financial literacy to school-age children as early as fourth grade.

“Financial literacy education in the schools is something that’s missing and hurting them as young adults,” Amin says. But imbue those lessons early, he adds, and young people have the greatest advantage to realize the benefits.

“Last year, I was shocked how aware children were of what’s going on,” Amin says of the near-economic collapse both nationally and globally. “This group is growing up with that all around them and it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re equipped to make sound financial decisions throughout their lives.”

In their own ways, both programs are attempting to address the lack of basic financial preparation.

“If you’re lucky, your parents teach you about everything except two subjects: love and finance,” Bonzell says.

He got into banking 27 years ago, when most of his clients had either lived through the Great Depression or had grown up soon after it.

“They were great savers,” Bonzell recalls. “I’m hoping that’s what comes out of this.”

Kevin Hein has already seen a difference in the clients at Powerhouse. Hein is a case manager at the transition center and works closely with Bonzell and the other bankers to ensure the lessons about sticking to a budget, chipping away at debt and negotiating with banks and credit card companies actually stick. Hein says Bonzell and the other instructors have added accountability to a message that’s suddenly relevant to everyone.

“That’s educated, not educated, rich or poor,” he says.

And Hein should know. He used to be in the mortgage lending business, an industry tainted for its questionable role in the foreclosure crisis. But contrary to many of his colleagues, Hein says he counseled couples not to enter into loans they couldn’t afford. He didn’t make much money out of the ethical approach, he says, “but I could sleep at night.”