ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) may be a relative or friend. You may be ALICE. As cashiers, waiters, child care providers, and other members of our essential workforce, ALICE earns just above the Federal Poverty Level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. These struggling households are forced to make impossible choices each day. While such hardship is pervasive, households of color are disproportionately ALICE.
ALICE also represents the data reshaping the dialogue on financial hardship, and a grassroots movement that is picking up steam across half of U.S. states - and counting. The driving force behind United For ALICE is our data and metrics. There were 38 million ALICE households (29%) nationwide in 2023. Combined with households below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), a total of 55 million U.S. households (42%) struggle to make ends meet.
In 2023, Cooke County had 26% (4,306) households at the ALICE threshold, 13% (2,074) households in poverty, with 61% above the ALICE threshold.
Cooke County United Way is partnering with GISD's High School Key Club juniors and seniors for a three-week simulation in February of 2026. This program allows students to learn about life through the lens of ALICE and teaches students to learn how to budget and utilize resources through a simulation with scenarios where they experience the life of an individual that is employed, making just enough to make ends meet (very similar to the life that many students live as they graduate and start life and leave home). This program will teach them about work, budgeting, planning for emergencies, empathy and emotional understanding for those living under these circumstances, as well as how to find resources within their community.