Devin Long: Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Devin Long, and I work with San Juan United Way. I'm really excited to spend some time talking with you about two incredibly important resources for families and caregivers through United Way called 211 and ALICE.

So, caregivers are often carrying so much behind the scenes emotionally, financially, mentally. And many families don't realize that there are community resources designed specifically to help lighten some of that burden.

And today, I really hope that we can just have an open, honest conversation about what that support is and how people can access it, and why understanding the realities facing working families is more important than ever. Whether someone is navigating a medical crisis, struggling to make ends meet, or simply just trying to find the right resources during a difficult season, help should be accessible, compassionate, and judgment-free. And that's really the heart behind both 211 and the ALICE Initiative.

So first, I just want to talk about what is 211. So, 211 is a national number, just those three numbers, 211. And if you call them anywhere in the country, you will get routed to your nearest 211 call center and/or United Way. So whenever someone calls 211 in San Juan County, they get routed to our United Way office, and they actually talk to myself, Catherine, or our very own 211 community navigator, Emery.

And so, what I love about 211 is you can call for anything. Some people might call because they need rent utility assistance, they need a food box, clothing. But it can also be for case managers and for caregivers. I myself am a caregiver to a family member, and I can say that I didn't even realize what a caregiver truly was because I always felt it was a hired professional, someone that had gone to school or was working eight to five and taking care of someone in the community. But caregivers are also friends that are taking care of others or family members.

And so, 211 supports all of us, all caregivers around. And when you call 211, you can call because you need help with prescription assistance or if you need help getting transportation for a family member or someone. It's available for anyone in the community, whether you're in need or you're someone that's providing a service. And so, we're very fortunate that we have our own very local office. So, whenever you talk to us, we're going to know exactly what is available, who to direct you to, and Emery, she's absolutely amazing.

The other thing that I want to talk about real quick is ALICE, and ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. And so, these are really our working class families. And so, just to give kind of some numbers, in San Juan County, there are 42,670 people. However, 51% of our community is living below an ALICE threshold. Now, what does that mean to live below an ALICE threshold?

In 2023, New Mexico joined United For ALICE, which is a national organization tied to United Way. And they were able to collect data and show that the average family of four makes $60,000 or less. Now, they also were able to show that for a family to live paycheck to paycheck, they have to make $90,000.

I always tell everybody, I don't know anyone that can walk into their boss's office and say, "Hey, I could really use an extra $30,000 a year." So, what is unfortunately happening with a lot of these families statewide and in our own county is they are forced to make the decision of, "Do I find another job where I can get to that $90,000 threshold? Or do I lower my income, whether that might be a significant other cutting out their income so they can qualify for state assistance?"

So, what we want to do through ALICE and in conjunction with 211 is to better support, our community members, our caregivers? So, how does this all tie through healthcare? A lot for our ALICE and our 211 families, this shows up every day as missed doctor's appointments, delayed care, prescriptions that are left unfilled, facing transportation barriers—especially in San Juan County—unsafe recovery environments, food insecurities, even just caregiver exhaustion. When you're taking care of somebody else, whether it's professionally or personally, sometimes often both, you're being faced with, "How do I take care of them and still take care of myself?"

And so, through 211, this is a free confidential navigation service that connects people to Health and Human Services. What we provide is getting housing support, utility assistance, food, helping navigate through transportation barriers, access to behavioral health resources, the benefits of navigation; also, senior services, caregiving support, which I will say, if you follow us online or if you visit our website, under our 211 tab on our website or pinned on our social media page, there is a caregiving support, guide, and that has tons of links, whether it's to local support groups for caregivers or just different resources altogether, aging services and such. We have all of that on there. And at the very end, I'll give our website and our phone number and everything for how you guys can get in touch with us.

But United Way really just wants to ensure that we have a strong safety net, and we should not be depending on someone already knowing who and what the right agency is at all times. We want to be able to support you all because just like the people that you're supporting, your clients, your family members. There's never a one-size-fits-all. And so, we want to be sure that we are leading you to the right agency and the right services. Whether someone is at the hospital, in a clinic, sitting somewhere for behavioral health services, law enforcement, another nonprofit, or even an employer, if you have an employee that's coming to you and they're saying that they're needing access to certain things, we want to make sure that everyone is able to access the right information at the right time.

And so, this information is especially helpful for discharge planners, nurses, social workers, case managers, nonprofit professionals, community health workers, and behavioral health teams. You're doing the hard work. You're facing unique situations where it's not entirely sure how you're going to get someone to the most safe and best option. And so, when you call and you talk to 211, we are looking at numbers like ALICE, and we're looking at information through our 211 database to be able to get you the right information to be able to help your clients, your family members, and friends.

And the other thing too that I love that we are local is if you're seeing a trend or an unmet need, you can also work with us. Call us and let us know. I mean, fun story of someone that we worked with through the hospital just this last winter, we had an employee that called us, and she said, "We have some new parents, and they don't have propane right now." And because on paper it looks like they make too much—again, our ALICE families, it looks like they make too much to qualify for the only propane assistance that exists. What do I do? And so, 211 was able to jump in, find a donor, and we were able to get propane filled up for this family. And so, this young couple and their newborn baby were able to go to a warm home and not rely on space heaters that were unsafe for their home.

So, we cannot thank those that are in our healthcare community especially, but all of our caregivers for what you guys do endlessly. And we just want you to know that there's no wrong question. There's no shame in asking for assistance for someone else or for yourself because we can't pour from an empty cup. We have to make sure we're taking care of ourselves. And that way, we can take care of others the best that we can.

 Again, I really just appreciate you all having me on here and being able to talk about such a unique situation that so many of you are facing. And there's people here for you. We are here for you.

And so, with that, I hope that we'll be able to work more together. And if you need anything, you can reach us at 211 or you can go to our website at www.sanjuanunitedway.org, and we are here for you. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day, everyone.