Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeart Radio Communities. I'm Ran Gorman, and we have a great conversation lined up for you. Let's get things started by bringing in two guests from United for Alice, a movement connected to the United Way. I'm joined by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way of Northern New
Jersey and President of United for Alice. I'm also joined by doctor Stephanie Hoops, national director for United for Alice. You can learn more about everything we discuss at United for Alice dot Org. Kieran, doctor Hoops, thank you so much for coming on the show. And Kieren, let me start with you. I think just about everyone listening has heard of the United Way, but give us an overview of the work you do at the local level across
the country. Thank you and thank you again Ryan for having Stephanie and I on today. We really appreciate this opportunity. I think you know, one of the things that is really special about this work is that it is really led by our United Way a local United Way United Way of Northern New Jersey. We operate obviously in New Jersey across our state. We focus on five counties in our community. We are really focused on providing programs and services that
really provide equitable, supportive solutions for ALICE families across our community. We know that there's a tremendous amount of wealth in the state of New Jersey, but also a tremendous amount of need. And when you really dig deep and you really look hard at what the Alice data tells us, which definitely we'll talk about, it really reveals that there is a tremendously unseen population Alice asset limited, income constrained employed who are working and yet at the end of the week
really struggling to make ends meet. So our United Way is unique, Ryan because we get to do that work here in the state of New Jersey, like I mentioned, and we have programs in areas of childcare, economic mobility, crisis, disaster support, and then Alice in the workplace. And then we also operate this national project called United for Alice, where we work with United Ways across the country who are also focused on supporting Alice in ways that
are meaningful and purposeful in their communities. And really that's the power of United Way, is that we bring people together around creating change that is most meaningful at a very local level. Yet we have this national movement that ties us all together, and we're focused on Alice. The work you do at the United Way of Northern New Jersey. I'm sure depending on the needs in each community there are some differences. But is the focus more generally speaking, the
same for each local United Way organization. I would say generally yes, generally yes. I think what is unique is that the Alice data tells us where the tremendous costs are and the are for Alice families. So, for example, in New Jersey, the number one cost item in an Alice family's budget is most typically childcare. It's a huge, huge cost driver, even more
than housing in most areas of New Jersey. And so our United Way in particular has a long history of partnering and supporting work in the childcare space, and in particular during the pandemic, we created something called United in Care where we partner childcare centers along with family care providers, those home based providers. Black and brown female entrepreneurs who are really supporting Alice families while they themselves are
Alice. So I think what's unique about the work that we do at United Way is we use the Alice data to tell us exactly where the needs are, where the challenges are, and then we're able to create programs and services to support families addressed specifically at those needs. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National Director for
United for Alice. You can learn more at United for Alice dot org. Doctor Hoops, let me bring you in now. How did United for Alice first get started. It had a very humble beginning. We were doing our work in Northern New Jersey. I was actually a volunteer and on the board when I was a professor at Rutgers, and we were trying to figure out the need in our community. Poverty rate was really low, and yet the grant applications were really high. So this disconnect made us question the federal poverty
level that was killing us, the magnitude of financial hardship. So putting on my research hat, getting together an amazing team of research advisors. We figured out what it actually cost to live and work in our county in northern New Jersey and found out it was much higher than that federal poverty level, and that was really the impetus to develop the ALICE metric and expand from one county to the state, to neighboring states to now we are a national research project
across the country. So what goes into creating this report? Yeah, great question. So it's a rigorous methodology with strong oversight from external research experts, and we build what's called the household survival budget, so the bare minimum to live and work in the modern economy, and it's just those basics of housing, childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, a little bit of technology, and ALICE paced taxes. So we're very transparent about what goes into that,
and we do it for every county in the country. So we can take into account the difference in the cost of living in New Jersey to Florida, to Manhattan to Mississippi and see that there's huge difference there, but then also taking into accounts the difference in the wages that are paid. So it's that gap between the cost of living and wages when we have ALICE, and so
those are the two key dimensions for our work. How long have you been creating this report for and have there been changes to how you put it together over the years. So we've been tracking ALICE since two thousand and seven. And what is really interesting and has propelled us in this work is the federal poverty level between twenty ten and today has been pretty flat, and we've seen
a steady increase in the number of ALICE households. So if we're only looking at those official measures, we are not seeing that things are getting harder for people. We're thinking, oh, maybe poverty is under control, We're getting by. But what we're seeing is on top of that are those ALICE households continuing to struggle, continuing during good times economic recovery, but also during a pandemic when you know everybody was facing challenges, and yet the poverty rate is
still staying flat. So we're learning a lot about what it takes to change that trajectory, and if we can't measure it properly, it's never going to happen. Before we get into some of the details of the latest report. Would you say that this is reflected in some of what we see when we're talking about the vibes across the country, how people are feeling about whether it's
the economy, their finances, things like that. We are hearing that so much that and I'm going to have to just refer to some of the data that's coming, but we are seeing wages increase, so we think when we're hearing from folks, they're going to be like, yes, my wages are finally starting to catch up. Many low wage jobs for the first time have had wage increases, so that we're seeing that on the data, we're hearing that from people, but we're also hearing this huge frustration that even with that
running faster, working harder, they're not able to keep up. And we're also seeing that those basic household costs are increasing even faster than those wages, and Alice started behind and is really having trouble to ever keep up if those costs increase faster. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kieran Honda Guardioso, President and CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops National director for United for Alice. You can
learn more at United for Alice dot org. Kieran, let me go back to you for a moment in terms of how this research and this data has been consumed over the years. Aince you've been putting out these reports, have you found that different communities, different United Way chapters, they're really able to utilize it and put the information to good use. Yes, Brian, that's a great question. You know everyone wants to know. Okay, so here's the data of it. Not now what right? I think that's what you're
getting to. And yes, in fact, we are seeing examples every day across the country, across the movement where United Ways are really leading and supporting and consulting on kind of substantive change. I can share two examples that you
know come to mind. The not a Way of West Tennessee, an area that has a historical tremendous amount of low wages and a rural poverty, not much investment, has really partnered with Ford Motor Company because they're building one of the largest electric vehicle manufacturing plant projects in the world in that area of West Tennessee, and so the United Way there is helping Ford identify the needs that ALICE families have in that community, what the impact of that investment will mean
in terms of the local economy and affordability, and really using the Alice data to look at gaps and services and supports for the entire community with an investment like that. Another one is Coca Cola Bottling Company United Locate headquartered in Georgia. They're the largest privately owned Coca Cola bottler in the United States. They use the Alice data to benchmark an entirely new pay scale system for their workforce
to really ensure equity around compensation for their employees. And so those are just you know, two examples, but big ones, you know, brand names that you know folks will recognize. Where we see United Ways really leading the charge and engaging partners, you know, in every community in ways that are incredibly purposeful and really drive not only the need of the community but the entire
local economy. That's interesting. So you have companies using this data, what about local elected officials, local governments, state governments, state leaders are they taking a look at this information that you're putting together as well. Absolutely, we see it across you know, all different state departments municipal governments, county governments. One of the core elements of the Alice movement is the Alice Survival
budget, and Stephanie, can you know, sports speak further. She's talked to it a little bit, but the survival budget really is a true measure of what it costs to live and take and basically survive, the minimum to survive for a family. And we see many local government officials at every level, including the federal, state, local, municipal, county. A lot of those entities are using that survival budget as the eligibility kind of determination criteria
for when a family needs services or individual needs the port. And that's something that is a real game changer because it's really pro getting the interventions and the service is to folks who really need it, even though you know they may technically may be above the poverty level, but they're still struggling, and those entities are using the Alice survival budget as the determining factor. Stephanie, let
me bring you in to talk more about the survival budget. Is this that number and I'm sure the number shifts a bit, but just generally speaking, is this that like forty percent number where you know, forty percent of households are barely getting by and they're one incident away from falling under. Yes, Unfortunately, our latest report showed that forty two percent of households are below that ALICE threshold. So that's poverty household plus ALICE, and it's fifty four million
households in the US. Tell us what goes into that number and how that number has changed. Like I mentioned, I had heard previously based on you know, a pass report, it's around forty percent. Now it sounds like it's ticked up a little bit. Dive a little deeper into that particular aspect of all of this. So great, So we measure the household survival budget for every county in the country, and it's really different place to place.
So for example, El Paso County, Texas, it's about sixty eight sixty nine thousand dollars. In Columbus, Ohio, it's ninety one thousand dollars for a family of four with two children for that same family composition, it's one hundred and thirty three thousand in Arlington County, Virginia. So we going from you know, sixty eight thousand to one hundred and thirty thousand is a big
difference. But when you think about those places, you know, the cost of living is really different, and as Kieren said, when you've got two kids in childcare, that adds a lot to a family budget. So we're able to take into account those differences, and then we look at how many households earn below that. And in some places, you know, wages are
higher and there aren't as many alice households. In some places, wages are lower, and there's an even larger proportion of the population that's struggling to meet those basic needs. So there's alice in every county and every state, in every local community across the country, the rates vary. And then we also see alice as every shape and size that we see in our country, to every age group, every race, ethnicity, every family composition, rural,
urban, suburban. We see alice everywhere. But we also know, due to historic discrimination and systemic agism, sexism, and geographic barriers, that some groups are disproportionately alice. So we see higher rates among black and Hispanic households, among single parent households, and among our oldest and youngest households. So there's alice everywhere, but we know that some groups are higher rates and need even more attention. What have we seen in recent years in terms of the
number of Alice households As we've seen inflation remain at an elevated level. Obviously the trend line has come down, but when you take a look at the cumulative effect of it and how much prices have gone up, it's really put a strain on so many families across the country. What have we seen in terms of the impact of that in bringing more and more families into that Alice threshold. So we track both inflation as well as wages, and our next
report being released shortly stay tuned, is the Alice Essentials Index. So we're looking at how do the cost increase that Alice of the things that Alice needs to buy, just those bare minimums, and how does that compare to what is increasing in the consumer price index, and that's all the goods and services
that people buy. What we find is those household basics are increasing faster than the overall goods and services, and so as a result, even though inflation is impacting everyone, it's impacting Alice more and so we're seeing Alice get those wage increases, but also the things they have to buy are increasing even faster.
So Alice is having trouble catching up. And we see that in the data both for the number of Alice households increasing, we see that in the inflation index, and we hear it in the struggles, in the frustration and the anxiety of Alice on the ground sharing their stories. How much is the cost of shelter and housing factoring in, because that's become a major issue in communities all across the country too. Right, and here's a great example.
So we're seeing housing costs increase across the board, and yet we're seeing that the housing costs are increasing for Alice even more so, while everybody's facing some of that challenge that those low costs, those smaller units, their rents increasing faster than bigger houses and second homes, let's say, things that are far
outside of Alice's reach. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined right now by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National director for United for Alice. You can learn more at United for Alice dot org. So I want to turn back to you, Kieran in terms of the practical impact act
of all of this tremendous data that you put together United for Alice. We talked a little bit earlier about how different United Way organizations can take that into account in communities and also how leadership, whether it's at the federal level, state level, local level, they can take it into account as well.
You guys also mentioned how companies are factoring all of this in So in terms of where we are now, what are some other stories of how this has been implemented in order to better help those who are part of the ALICE group. I think one of the most powerful things we've seen come out of the Alice movement, Ryan, are the stories, the stories of the families, the individuals, you know, all different compositions, locations, race, ethnicity.
It's really the stories that we hear from people that really didn't know they
were Alice, just knew they were struggling. And when we are able to lift up those stories, amplify those stories, that's where we see just more people joining us and raising their voices, becoming advocates, volunteering, you know, providing an investment, making a donation, and That's really what happens when we are able to combine you know, the data with all the kind of on the ground partner work that's happened that you just outlined, and then with
just engaging our local communities around the stories of these families and the long histories of challenge that these families are dealing with despite working, despite being critical to our economy. Alice is you know, during the pandemic, we all very quickly realized how much we relied on Alice, not just in the healthcare space, but you know, retail and service economy, our you know, drivers, our delivery, all of those things. We need Alice in our community.
And by you know, hearing stories and amplifying the challenges that families are experiencing, that's where real systemic, long term change happens, because then we all really take a step back and acknowledge what's happening in our community. Stephanie just talked about, you know, forty two percent of households across the United States are alice and in poverty. You know, that's a tremendously large number. And when we have that many families and households that are struggling, it's
not good for anyone. The entire economy and all of our communities are then struggling. Doctor Hoops, let me turn back to you. I want to get to a few other groups you track with this ALICE data, children, people with disabilities, and veterans. Talk to us about that, right, We've been digging into some special populations and we found that half of children in the US are below that ALICE threshold. They're living in families that are struggling
to afford their basic needs. So that should be a call for anyone to realize that, you know, that magnitude of financial hardship is in our communities and that's going to be driving our future. We also see very high proportion of people with disabilities that are allies and it impacts not only them but their families in terms of caregiving and ability to work, as well as additional costs.
But people with disabilities can also work, and as our economy struggles to find workers and retain workers, you know, here's a group that could definitely be tapped into and brought into the labor force in a productive way. And then finally, in our veterans' work, here's a group where we see veterans
actually doing better than non veterans. And in looking into that, there are so many terrific programs that support our veterans in terms of healthcare, in terms of job growth and development, as well as housing supports, and these are the kinds of things that are making a difference. And so in learning that, we thought, gosh, here are good examples of what might be provided
to non veteran groups to make a difference. So it's nice to have at least one success story and do like to highlight some of the great programs that have been brought onto line for veterans. That's really interesting, and that leads me to a follow up question real quick, as you're tracking Alice across the country and you're seeing what works and what doesn't, what are some best practices, programs, things that are lifting people up out of that group. So
there's two sides to the equation. Anything that increases wages for Alice makes a huge difference anything that increases their income. So wages is the first thing that we think of the economic impact. Payments made a differ friends during the pandemic, So there's that whole side of the equation. And then anything that reduces costs So anything that makes housing more affordable, anything that makes childcare accessible and
affordable. Same goes for transportation healthcare. So you think of the programs that have been put into place that are making it easier for Alice to get where they need to go, that are making healthcare more affordable, makes a huge difference to these families. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO the net Way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for Alice, and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National Director for United for Alice. You
can learn more about this organization at United for Alice dot org. Are there certain parts of a family's budget that is having an even greater impact on those in the Alice group these days, whether it's healthcare costs or housing, like we talked about before, Are there certain things that in more recent years are creating a bigger and bigger problem for families to pull themselves out of that Alice threshold. Well, we dig into each one of those, Brian, and
they are all increasing right now. So housing we already touched upon that low income housing childcare is so important. It's we call it the workforce behind the workforce, Alice needs to be able to afford to take their child to childcare, and yet so many of those childcare workers are themselves Alice. So there's
a real conundrum of industry that's not working according to market dynamics. And we've been working with a lot of our partners on pilots exploring ways to improve that childcare system, getting money in for tuition assistants, getting subsidies in, or some of those providers who are working in tough neighborhoods and hearing that folks need more childcare. They need it before work, you know, traditional work hours, they need it after traditional work hours, and they need it on the
weekend. You know, Alice is working twenty four to sevent these days to keep our economy running. Kieren, let me turn back to you for a moment. How can everyone go to United for Alice dot org and kind of digest some of this information? And obviously, I mean, there's so much here. What are some suggestions if people want to learn more about a lot
of what we've talked about so far. I think the best place to start is, really, as you said, Ryan, is to visit the website and you know, really look at your your state, and then there's there's lots of easy ways to navigate the state information and toggle over you a heat map to look at your county or you know, as a collection of counties and really understand kind of the basic number that we've been talking about, the
percentage of households that are Alice, the percentage of households that are in poverty. And then from there, you know, it really depends on what you're interested in. We have, as you said, many many tools. Really depends on kind of what your vantage point is and whether or not you are working in the nonprofit sector on a particular issue such as housing, or whether you are a government official and you really want to really legislator and you want
to understand your constituency and all the varying issues in your constituency. So it really depends. But we have, you know, as Stephanie said, something called the Economic Viability Dashboard where you can really drill down and look at housing and other issues in the community and what that means for ALICE families when there
are supports and changes around the availability of housing and other services. We have an election excuse me, and a legislative district tool where You can sort the Dallas data by not only federal but state legislative district, which is very powerful, very helpful. We have a wage tool, you know, we have
a million million and those are just a few. We have a million different ways of indicators where you can look at Alice relative to food, desert childcare, deserts, libraries, you know, all all different kinds of indicator analysis. So I think it's it's get on the website, see what interests you, and then really reach out reach out to our team. We respond to a lot of inquiries from folks who are looking for something that maybe they didn't
see, or they are looking for something new and different. You know, everything that Stephanie's talked about, a lot of that those data and those tools really came from requests from the field, from the communities, from folks inquiring, and so we love to hear you know, how people are using the
data and then also you know a different requests for it. And the last thing I'll say, because I know we're short on time, is we would really encourage your listeners to if they do have and Alice story themselves or they know someone who'd be willing to share their Alice story to please go to Alicevoice's dot org. You know that you can reach it right from our website.
It's right there when you get onto the landing page. And we're really looking to, as I said, collect stories directly from Alice families and make sure that we're able to amplify those stories in partnership with the data. Because when you bring the personal narrative and story and you combine it with the data, that's when we see, you know, long term systemic change happen again.
You can find all of that at United for Alice dot org. That's United for Alice dot org to sift through the research and the information we've been discussing. If you are someone who is Alice, you're in that Alice threshold and you're in need of help, you can go to to one one dot org
or call to one one to connect with different supportive services. Again, if you're listening right now and you're part of that Alice group and your need of some assistance, call two one one or go to two one one dot org for more information. Kieran Honda Gaudioso, President and CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and president of United for Alice and doctor Stephanie Hoops, National Director for United for Alice Kieran, Doctor Hoops, thank you both so
much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Good conversation. Thanks Brian, thank you, Thanks so much. Ryan. All Right, and that's going to do it for this edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up, I want to offer a big thanks to all of our guests and of course to all of you for listening. If you want to hear previous episodes of this show, we're on your iHeartRadio app. Just search
for iHeartRadio Communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.