Additional Activities

Overall Curriculum

  • 2021 Virtual Program Materials
  • Participant Workbook Sample from Winnebago County

    Participant Workbook Sample from Winnebago County
    As Rent Smart has been delivered in Winnebago County, we have provided participants with a workbook/resource guide to use in the workshops and to take with them as a tenant guide for the future. The sample provided here includes many of the activity worksheets and handouts included in the Rent Smart 2017 curriculum, but not all of them – it has been customized for our audience. In Winnebago County, participants are given the workbook at the first workshop and expected to bring them back for subsequent classes. We have found this approach minimizes handouts at the sessions and helps participants organize materials. We do share a few additional handouts at sessions – like a legal size version of the Rental Agreement (Module F) and the Listening Activity (Module E). One of our community partners pays for the publication of the workbooks.
    Feel free to use this workbook as is, adapt to meet your needs, or create your own – the cover of our workbook includes contact information for our office.
    Submitted by – Chris Kniep, Winnebago County Family Living Educator
    Date posted – June 2017
    Updated and submitted by – Amanda Dornfeld and Amy Hendrickson. Date posted – August 2017

  • Financial Feud Power Point from St. Croix County

    Financial Feud Power Point from St. Croix County Financial Feud is a trivia game style presentation on PowerPoint for use with college students. It is designed to help them understand their responsibilities if they choose to live off campus as a renter. At the end it includes one activity for looking up the cost of living off campus where participants use ads to determine the amounts needed for rent, utilities, parking, security deposit and application fee.
    Created and submitted by Joan Sprain
    Date posted – December 2017

Module A: How Much Will It Cost? And Can I Afford It?
Module B: Checking Out the Rental Property and the Landlord

  • Identify what they want and need in a rental unit.

    Materials needed: Paper plates labelled with housing needs listed on Handout 1: My Housing Needs (e.g., near bus line, near family/friends, near work, etc., [1 plate per item]) spread around the room. Slips of paper labelled “very important”, “moderately important” and “not important” (multiples of each for every participant). Handout 1: My Housing Needs Suggested Introduction: We all have different needs in making housing selections―from the neighborhood we live, into the features of the property we are looking at. Knowing what is important and what isn’t helps narrow our search for rental property. Instructions: Have participants walk around the room, placing their very important, moderately important, not important slips on the plates/characteristics that were most important, moderately important, not important. Invite participants to tally the slips on each plate and have the group discuss what the overall group found most important to least important and why these choices were made. (Using the expertise of the group.) Distribute copies of Handout 1: My Housing Needs for later use.―Submitted by Beverly Baker, Racine County Family Living Educator, March 2017
  • Possible Indicators of Discriminatory Treatment Activity ―Submitted by Amy Mangan-Fischer, Fond du Lac County HDRI Educator, March 2022

Module C: Application Process

Module D: Who’s Responsible for Maintenance, Repairs and Care?
Module E: Communications
Module F: Rental Agreements—Moving In, Moving On

  • Eviction Video from Legal Action of Wisconsin in English and Spanish.