Poverty: Information Sharing Corner

	United Way of Southeast Louisiana
	Thought Leaders Volume 2.4

1/29/2016

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Do you know ALICE? Of course you do. ALICE is everywhere.

From Amite to Arabi, Belle Chasse to Bogalusa, Mandeville to Marrero, the east bank to the west bank of New Orleans - ALICE lives in the wonderful mosaic of communities that make up Southeast Louisiana.

ALICE is Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed-a term to describe residents across Louisiana who are working hard, yet still struggling to make ends meet. ALICE has low-paying jobs, little or no savings, and is one emergency from falling into poverty.

ALICE represents community members working in jobs that are needed, but don't always pay enough to afford the basics, such as our child care teachers, home health aides, mechanics, store clerks, office assistants and more. ALICE is men and women of all ages and races. ALICE is your customers, constituents, neighbors-even family members and friends. ALICE is the 'working poor'.

United Way of Southeast Louisiana, in conjunction with the Louisiana Association of United Ways, has published the groundbreaking new study of financial hardship in our state. The United Way ALICE R eport for Louisiana reveals 695,719 households-40 percent of the state's total - are ALICE. More than 208,000 of ALICE households live in southeast Louisiana.

The United Way ALICE Report employs a Household Survival Budget (HSB), incorporating household costs such as housing, food, child care, transportation, healthcare and taxes establishing a threshold for ALICE to survive. The average HSB for ALICE households in our seven-parish region estimates $19,248 is needed for individuals and $48,492 for a 2 parent/1 preschooler/1 infant family to afford the bare minimum. While this exceeds the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) of $11,490 for a single adult and $23,550 for a family of four, ALICE can barely live paycheck to paycheck.

Our goals are to give ALICE a voice, leverage the hard work of United Way and other nonprofits, and make it clear more needs to be done to help ALICE and those living in poverty so we can build a better, stronger Louisiana. We believe the United Way ALICE Report for Louisiana can equip communities with information to create innovative solutions.

United Way of Southeast Louisiana plans to use the ALICE study as a framework for improving lives and strengthening local communities. Many of the social problems in our region have the same root cause - Poverty. Equipped with knowledge gained from 63 listening sessions held across our service area, United Way of Southeast Louisiana identified poverty as its "Big Issue" going forward. We've put our stake in the ground. We want businesses and individuals to join us in developing strategies and partnerships to educate and empower people to help lift them out of poverty.

United Way of Southeast Louisiana is helping ALICE through the many programs we support, including VITA - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance - which offers free tax help to individuals, families, persons with disabilities, the elderly and limited English speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. Join us for a Super Tax Day this Friday, January 29th, from 11:00am to 6:00pm at Southern University at New Orleans' Conference Center where over 20 stations will be available to assist qualifying tax payers prepare their returns for FREE!

We thank Entergy Corporation for serving as our lead sponsor to the United Way ALICE Report for Louisiana and as a member of the National ALICE Advisory Council with other national corporate sponsors seeking to help ALICE across the country. We also thank JPMorgan Chase for support as a Louisiana Friend of ALICE.

The complete United Way ALICE Report for Louisiana as well as this Regional Summary for Southeast Louisiana can be viewed at www.unitedwaysela.org/ALICE.

Michael Williamson

President and CEO

United Way of Southeast Louisiana

Main Office: 2515 Canal Street New Orleans, LA 70119 |