Too many working households in our community do not have access to nourishing food, resources to support learning for children, or strong financial foundations for long-term success. When you become an advocate with United Way, you can help everyone have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Explore our advocacy initiatives below to join us to advocate for neighbors in need.
ADVOCATE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY
Expand your perspective and learn more about the challenges facing families in our communities
UNITED WAY's 30|30 EXPERIENCE
- Sign up for United Way's 30|30 Experience, a 90-minute, virtual, interactive experience where you will step into the shoes of an ALICE family and better understand the realities of economic hardship. Or contact us to bring this experience to your company, organization, or group.
EQUITY CHALLENGE
- Sign up for the Equity Challenge, a personal commitment to spend just 10–15 minutes a day for 5 days engaging with curated resources that deepen our understanding of equity — and how bias, privilege, oppression, and trauma show up in our everyday lives.
ALICE IN ACTION
- Sign up for our ALICE IN ACTION e-newsletter and never miss an opportunity to advocate for yourself and your neighbors! This newsletter will focus on supporting and mobilizing ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) individuals and families across the Greater New Haven region. Click below to add your email address.
- You'll receive:
- Legislative alerts
- Action opportunities to make your voice heard
- Toolkits and resources to support advocacy in your community
MEET ALICE
Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed
Many of our neighbors do not have the income to pay for necessities such as housing, food, child care, health care, technology and transportation – even though they may work multiple jobs.
United Way describes households facing these challenges with the acronym, ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
ALICE is the essential health care worker caring for our aging parents at home. ALICE is the teaching assistant who helps our children learn, or the bus driver who gets our kids to school. ALICE fixes our cars and works in our local shops and restaurants.
By joining our advocacy efforts, you can help ALICE families build strong financial foundations for long-term success.
WE ADVOCATE FOR
- Creating a fully refundable Connecticut Child Tax Credit
- Funding homelessness prevention, crisis response, and housing by supporting the CT CAN End Homelessness Policy Agenda
- Funding 211 at $4.5M in FY26 and $4M in FY27
- Stabilizing the child care sector by supporting the CT Early Childhood Alliance Policy Agenda