Rebuilding financial lives.
Strengthening recovery.
Give Me Credit For Trying is a Delaware nonprofit that delivers structured financial recovery programming inside recovery residences, reentry programs, and community organizations, so the people building a new chapter leave with a real plan for their money.
Financial stability is part of the foundation recovery stands on.
People in recovery and reentry are building something every day: housing, work, family, a future. Credit, banking access, and a plan for the next paycheck are part of that foundation. We bring the financial piece into the room, with structure, dignity, and tools people keep using after the session ends.
"The name is the mission. Everyone deserves credit for trying, and a real system for building what comes next."
REBUILD: a 12-session financial recovery program
Delivered in cohorts inside the settings where rebuilding already happens. Participants don't just learn about money. They walk out with the work done.
What participants leave with
- Their credit reports pulled, read, and disputed where needed
- A banking plan and a path to an account that works for them
- A written 12-Month GPS Plan in their hands
- A community and portal they can keep coming back to
How it's built
- Grounded in the CHAOS framework: Changing Habits To Advance Our Situation
- Practical, judgment-free, and built around each person's goals
- Designed so facility staff can deliver it with our portal and materials
- Educational programming. Not credit repair, not legal or financial advice
structured sessions, from credit reports to a 12-month plan
live cohorts running now, including Recovery Café in Wilmington, Delaware
founded as a Delaware nonprofit corporation
Three ways to bring REBUILD to more people
Run it at your site
A site license gives your staff the portal, materials, and facilitator support to deliver REBUILD on your own calendar, across one site or many, without adding to anyone's caseload.
Book a 20-min introSponsor a cohort
Fund a cohort and put your people in the room as guest facilitators, with documented hours, attendance, and outcomes reporting your community team can use.
Talk sponsorshipExpand the reach
We partner with foundations, agencies, and community organizations across Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic to bring financial recovery programming where it's needed most.
Start a conversationBuilt from both sides of the phone call
Shelton Marchman, Founder & President
Shelton spent more than twenty years inside credit risk, collections, and receivables, running collections for lending portfolios. Then the collectors started calling him. He built Give Me Credit For Trying from both sides of that phone call, turning insider knowledge of how the system works into a structured, dignified path forward.
He is the author of Give Me Credit For Trying, the book behind the CHAOS framework and the REBUILD model, and the founder of Custom Credit Solutions. His work comes back to one conviction: your past explains you. It does not define you.
Let's bring REBUILD to the people you serve.
We work with recovery residences, reentry programs, community organizations, funders, and financial institutions that share this mission. Tell us a little about your organization and we'll follow up.