Jackson County
IMPACT! Mom and Baby Doing Fine
Education is a critical part of achieving financial stability for a lifetime. That’s a challenge for teenage parents, who struggle to balance childcare and learning. One of our partners, Hub Teen Center of Jackson, targets this need through its hubMOMS initiative. Here’s one of its success stories: When the Hub Teen Center staff met Alice,…
Read MoreIMPACT! Trusted Advisors Encourage Vaccination
Being there for people who are struggling can make all the difference. Trusted Advisors, an initiative through the Great Start Collaborative, depends on individuals living in high-poverty areas who are trained and trusted to help others in need navigate support systems in housing, food, employment, health care and other needs. Here’s how Trusted Advisors encouraged…
Read MoreIMPACT! Young Life JUMPs Back on Track
The path to a financially stable and successful life begins in youth. We’re proud of our partnership with Family Service & Children’s Aid’s JUMP program (Just Understand My Potential), which provides at-risk juveniles with services to promote regular school attendance, employability, improved behavioral choices, better family relationships, and prevent future prosecution or recidivism. Sam came…
Read MoreIMPACT! Family Experiencing Homelessness Builds a Brighter Future
Children who experience homelessness are far less likely to succeed in school. In fact, nationally only 64% of homeless students graduate high school. Our partnership with Lily Missions Center provides a valuable after-school program that recently made a powerful difference for an entire family: At the beginning of 2020, a family of four came to…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: Where We Go From Here
by Ken Toll This wraps up our blog series on the ALICE population. To read others in the series, go to our Meet ALICE page. There’s this puzzling perspective that people have about United Way. I’ve heard it throughout my career. It usually goes something like this: “I know about United Way. I know you…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: Health, Income are Deeply Connected
This is part of a series of blogs spotlighting the ALICE population and how our community can make a difference. Want to know how healthy you’ll be in your lifetime? Check your bank account. Studies consistently show that income is tied to people’s risk of poor health. According to the government website healthypeople.gov, “Residents of…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: How Life for ALICE Affects Children
This is part of a series of blogs spotlighting the ALICE population and how our community can make a difference. Families with children are changing. Today mothers are doing more paid work outside the home than in previous years. Nationally in 2015, 42 percent of mothers were sole or primary breadwinners, bringing in 50 percent…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: Seniors Face Struggles
This is part of a series of blogs spotlighting the ALICE population and how our community can make a difference. Two major population bubbles are changing communities across Michigan. The largest is the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. By the time COVID-19 struck, an estimated 10,000 baby boomers in the United States were…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: ALICE and Race
This is part of a series of blogs spotlighting the ALICE population and how our community can make a difference. Poverty and racism have been inextricably connected since this country’s inception, yet official federal statistics have never fully portrayed the economic impact of that link. United For ALICE, an initiative through United Way Worldwide, was…
Read MoreMeet ALICE: COVID-19 Pummels ALICE Households
This is part of a series of blogs spotlighting the ALICE population and how our community can make a difference. The pandemic has created two groups of ALICE workers: those who are in essential jobs and still working, typically on-site; and those who are in non-essential roles and now working far fewer hours or not…
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