Advocate for your neighbor
Take action for people who are struggling to get by in our community
Join United Way of Greater New Haven to advocate for local individuals and families. Too many working households in our community struggle to feed their families, ensure their medical care, maintain their housing and access affordable child care. When you become an advocate with United Way, you can help everyone have the opportunity to take care of their basic needs and reach their full potential.
Many people in our community 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. The acronym United Way uses to describe households facing this challenge is ALICE, Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. You can help ALICE families achieve a more secure financial future by joining United Way’s advocacy efforts.
73%
of single female-headed families are ALICE
63%
of Hispanic households live below the ALICE threshold
57%
of Black households live below the ALICE threshold
38%
of all households live below the ALICE threshold
Getting to Know ALICE
By becoming an advocate, you are helping people you may know. ALICE is the essential health care worker caring for our aging parents at home and for COVID patients in our hospitals. ALICE is the teaching assistant who helped our children adapt to virtual learning, or the bus driver who gets our kids to school. ALICE fixes our cars and works in our local shops and restaurants. Learn more about our advocacy efforts below. Contact us to get involved.
WE ADVOCATE FOR
Equitable Employment
We give families support by helping build more equitable pathways for career opportunities that meet employers’ needs and provide sustainable wages, through efforts such as Connecticut’s Workforce Strategic Plan.
Accessible Education
We invest in systems that increase access to education for children in all communities. This includes advocating for more funding for early care and education and improving access to reliable, affordable and quality child care including through the State’s Care 4 Kids childcare subsidy.
Affordable Housing
We support initiatives to increase access to affordable housing by informing the creation of statewide advocacy agendas, testifying at public hearings, submitting testimonies, and recruiting, training and supporting individuals to testify and share their stories.
Expanding Tax Credits
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) makes individuals, families and our community stronger. We support restoring the CT EITC to at least 30% of a filer’s federal EITC and expand eligibility of the EITC.
Supportive Child Care
A state Child Tax Credit can be a big boost to local families. We support establishing a state CTC to offset the cost of caring for a child or dependent with disabilities.
Improved Healthcare
We support efforts that create a parity with medical insurance, including increasing the eligibility income for HUSKY/Medicaid enrollment and allowing young adults to receive dental coverage through their parents until age 26.
