United For ALICE is a driver of innovation, research, and action to improve life across the country for ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) and for all. The development of the ALICE measurements, which provide a comprehensive, unbiased picture of financial hardship, has revealed that 41% of U.S. households cannot make ends meet has emerged.

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The ALICE research quantifies and describes the number of households that are struggling financially. From humble beginnings as a study to understand the struggles of families in one New Jersey county, this body of research has worked to increasingly shed light on a hidden population we now know as ALICE. Harnessing this data and research on the mismatch between low-paying jobs and the cost of survival, ALICE partners convene, advocate, and collaborate on solutions that promote financial stability at local, state, and national levels.

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After a decade of work, the spark ignited by the initial study has grown into a grassroots ALICE movement, across more than two-thirds of U.S. states to change the national dialogue about financial hardship. Led by United Way of Northern New Jersey, the ALICE movement includes  United Ways, corporations, nonprofits, and foundations in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut,  Delaware, District of Columbia,  Florida,  Georgia, Hawai‘i, Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska,  New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia , and Wisconsin; we are United For ALICE.

 

Based on the overwhelming success of the research in identifying and communicating the needs of ALICE households, this collaborative is working together to give ALICE a national voice.