Together, they became regular volunteers at the Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility in Highland Hills, Ohio. Month after month, they showed up, listening, teaching, and building trust with the young people inside. During one volunteer session, a youth shared something that would change the trajectory of their work. He spoke with excitement about his upcoming release and the job he had secured with an employee-owned company. As Ethan and Rissa talked with him about benefits like healthcare and retirement savings, his enthusiasm grew, but so did his frustration. He shared that he wished he had learned about finances during his time in the facility. Money was something he wanted to understand, something he knew would matter once he returned home. He said that if they were willing to come back and teach, he would encourage his friends to join too.

They were willing.

Ethan soon began teaching multiple cohorts of a financial literacy class within the facility. As the classes grew, so did a realization, the need for justice-informed financial education that acknowledged the realities of incarceration and reentry far exceeded what they could provide as volunteers. This gap was not limited to one facility or one city. It existed across the state and even across the country.

Out of that realization, BeRe Stewardship was founded. Ethan and Rissa founded the organization with the hope that correctional facilities, nonprofits, reentry programs, and places of worship could be equipped with justice-informed financial literacy curriculum. Their mission is to empower returning citizens with financial knowledge that is compassionate, practical, and grounded in lived experience. At its core, BeRe Stewardship is a labor of love, built alongside returning citizens and for returning citizens, with a deep belief in their resilience, potential, and ability to build a more stable future.