Cairo Douglas landed a job offer to be a teacher’s aide at her 8-year-old son D’Angelo’s school. A friend agreed to pick up Douglas’ 2-year-old daughter, Xaina, each afternoon at preschool — a necessary condition so Douglas could work. But then her friend’s circumstances changed and, without transportation for Xaina, Douglas had to decline the position. Today she supports herself and her family as a Door Dash driver, working six to eight hours a day, six days a week. With her current work schedule, Douglas can pick up Xaina from preschool, but she is not able to make ends meet.
Douglas is ALICE, an acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
United Way of Northern New Jersey coined the term in 2009 to capture an initially puzzling situation. In the state’s affluent Morris County, increasing numbers of residents were turning to the agency for basic financial needs, yet the county had a very low poverty rate. United Way researchers found these residents were in households with income above the Federal Poverty Line, but below the cost of household basics in the communities where they live. Despite working hard—often in multiple jobs—ALICE workers struggle to make ends meet.
Chances are ALICE’s serve many in a community. Cashiers, waiters, childcare providers and many service sector employees are ALICE. But so can be teachers, certified nursing assistants, emergency medical technicians and firefighters. ALICE individuals can hold bachelor’s or graduate degrees.
Earning just above the Federal Poverty Level means they are often ineligible for government assistance, despite living paycheck-to-paycheck. They are financially vulnerable to emergencies like a car breaking down or a sudden medical expense. Even for the more financially secure, one catastrophic health failure or a sudden loss of income could place the person at risk of becoming ALICE.
Douglas, fortunately, has found opportunities.
When the teacher’s aide job fell through, she was one of the first cohorts in a Clarksville non-profit residency program called Judy’s Hope. Area service organizations, including the Salvation Army and UT-TSU Extension Montgomery County, coach residents on money management, nutrition and job skills. Douglas was accepted into an IT-project manager certificate program. Then the vegetarian cornbread she made found fans among Judy’s Hope residents and administrators. That sparked the idea for Douglas to use a commercial kitchen operated by Extension to refine her recipe and work toward launching sales of the cornbread.
Douglas named her emerging product Glory Cornbread.
“My fitness training business was named Trouble Fitness. I tell people God has led me from trouble to glory. The glory is all his, not mine. I’m just grateful to be led,” she says.
Tamera Adjei, the family and consumer sciences agent and Extension director in Montgomery County, offered the use of the kitchen to Douglas and other Judy’s Hope residents.
“The kitchen is a small business incubator where we help food producers get their product to retail shelves,”
she says.
Adjei says people like Douglas who are employed yet struggling increasingly occupy her thoughts. This group, she adds, is often unseen and underserved in communities, and some in the ALICE demographic feel shame or stigma about asking for help.
In 2022, 30 percent of Tennessee households qualified as ALICE.
“These people are serving us, but what are we doing to serve them?” she muses.
Last May, Adjei and Brandi Berven, both members of an internal Extension program focused on enhancing access and engagement, presented a session about ALICE at the Tennessee Extension GALAXY Conference, an annual gathering of agents who serve each of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
“The interest was huge,” Adjei says.
Data dashboards at the United for ALICE website (unitedforalice.org) show local costs of a survival budget, from housing to food to healthcare and taxes, and identify by percentage the race and ages of community members who are ALICE.
College-aged students also can be ALICE. Knowing this, UT Knoxville launched the Center for Basic Needs, which provides resources, advocacy and support to ensure their personal well-being and academic success. Its resources include Big Orange Pantry, Smokey’s Closet, Basic Needs Emergency Fund and more.
Adjei and her Extension colleagues work to reach ALICE individuals by teaching money management and managing chronic diseases at times and locations where participants are available. She gives mini lessons to Extension Family and Community Education Clubs.
Adjei also shares tips on stretching dollars at community fairs.
“If someone finds an idea or two helpful, I’m hoping they will ask, ‘Do you offer training on this, or where I can learn more?’”
Janet Fox, UT Extension assistant dean of family and consumer sciences, thinks Extension can assist ALICE individuals through collaborative efforts.
“The problems are complex and need the collaboration of several agencies to address. Community members and organizations can be part of the solution of helping these individuals. Employers have a role, too, and being empathetic about the challenges ALICE households face can go a long way. Realizing that even though an employer pays good wages to its workers, employees in ALICE households may face extra challenges that affect their punctuality or ability to recover when personal challenges occur.”
Helping people who are ALICE returns to the notion of neighbors helping neighbors.
Fox says, “Any way we can put that neighborhood feel back into society is a good thing, and it can be as simple as sharing extra produce from our gardens or helping people grow their own food, which is something our Tennessee Extension Master Gardeners do.
“All of us together can make a difference for those who are ALICE.”
