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g i v i n g g u i d e 2014 www.HartfordBusiness.com November25,2014•Hartford Business Journal 7 makinG the community healthier H arvard Pilgrim Health Care is committed to improving the health of the communities we serve through the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and also through the collective community engagement of our 1360 employees. Our company serves members in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and beginning in 2014, in Connecticut. We are thrilled to extend the work of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation to benefit Hartford and other areas of the state. The Foundation has been active in working to prevent childhood obesity, funding initiatives to educate children and families about nutrition and fitness. We have also worked to increase access to fresh foods for inner city residents and to raise visibility for healthy eating and active living. Moreover, the Foundation enlists the support of Harvard Pilgrim staff to serve our local communities. We are delighted to be working with local partners on service days in the Hartford area. And, our mini- grant program enables employees to direct small Foundation grants to local charities, in memory of Harvard Pilgrim members who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. As a company, we have also made inclusion a strategic business initiative, one in which we value difference and believe we create value through difference. In our first year in Connecticut, we've enjoyed working with several Hartford-area agencies. We see many more opportunities ahead to build on these relationships for advancing the health of the Hartford community. eric h. schultz President and CEO Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Board Chairperson Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation my name is alice Since my parents named me at birth, I have been one form of Susan, Susie, Sue for as long as I can remember. Two decades ago, you could have called me "Alice." Why Alice? United Ways in the state of Connecticut have come together to release a statewide report that tells the story of ALICE — Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. In other words, the story of working individuals and households that struggle each day to make ends meet. Twenty years ago, I entered the workforce full time from a part time job so that my husband could go back to school to pursue his dream upon his business closing. With three school-aged children on one income, we qualified for income supports such as free lunch at their public school. Today, United Way's ALICE Report for Connecticut shows that one out of three households in our region qualify as ALICE households. This means that despite working — maybe even two jobs — they have earned less than necessary just to survive in Greater Hartford. One in four households earn more than the poverty level but less than what it takes to afford the basics — housing food, health care, childcare, and transportation. For an ALICE household with two adults and two children — an infant and a toddler — a conservative calculation of the cost of these basic necessities reaches nearly $64,000. With 51% of all jobs in Connecticut paying less than $20 an hour, or slightly more than $40,000 annually, and most paying between $10 and $15 an hour, ALICE families face a gap in their ability to make ends meet. Our goal for publishing our ALICE Report for Connecticut is to bring to light that, by helping to meet ALICE's challenges, we help our communities to thrive. Connecticut United Ways have focused on ALICE households though affordable, quality childcare, and affordable housing supports — the two largest financial stresses on ALICE. ALICE households are in every town and city in our state — a state with one of the highest median incomes and lowest rates of poverty in the country. ALICE is our friends, our neighbors our relatives — twenty years ago, I too was ALICE. susan B. dunn President and CEO United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut