ALICE
DONATEDID YOU KNOW?
Babies born to mothers who have not finished high school are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as babies born to college graduates. Children whose parents have not finished high school are more than six times as likely to be in poor or fair health as children of college graduates.
At the end of September, we released the newest ALICE report for the State of TN. The report is a project of United for ALICE, a grassroots movement of more than 600 United Ways and their corporate, government, and nonprofit partners that all use the same methodology for documenting financial need. This report is the most comprehensive depiction of financial need in our state to date.
WHO IS ALICE?
So who is ALICE? ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Until now, ALICE has been a hidden population. ALICE works, but struggles to afford the basic necessities, including housing, food, childcare, healthcare, and transportation. The issue is that ALICE households often don’t qualify for governmental aid or social service programs, and they are virtually invisible to the system. A lot of times, their struggles are unseen and unknown.
The idea for ALICE originated in 2007 with the first report being published in Morris County, NJ in 2009. Fast-forward 10 years to 2019, TN became the 21st state to publish an ALICE report. United Ways in the state of TN in partnership with corporate sponsors worked together to become United for ALICE and produce this groundbreaking report. We brought in experts across the state to serve as the ALICE TN Research Advisory Committee.