ALICE summit brings local leaders together to address financial insecurity

JACKSON, Tenn. — Local leaders all gathered together in Jackson Wednesday morning to discuss a very important topic.

Roughly 51% of West Tennesseans struggle to make ends meet every single day. Dozens of organizations and groups came together at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center to discuss this issue.

“Today we are actually convening government, industry, and nonprofit leaders to talk about solutions,” said Jordan Howerton, FEC Regional Director, United Way of West Tennessee. “So what are ways that we can collaborate together across sectors to address the needs for our community.”

We asked Howerton how important collaboration is to reach this goal.

“Because our communities are complex, we have lots of different stakeholders,” Howerton said. “We really need all of the stakeholders working together to really see traction and really see change in our communities. If any one of those tries to do it without the others, they might get somewhere, but not where we would like to be.”

A resource guide was created for employers to take with them when they left. Howerton explains what it consists of.

“Chock-full of policy suggestions and things they can implement quickly, effectively, and some low cost opportunities as well as some big ones. But we have some policy suggestions for employers that we would love for them to begin implementing that would address some needs immediately,” said Howerton.

They also have many people involved to help with idea creation.

This was the third consecutive year for the event.

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