ABOUT ALYSSA ALONTE:
Alyssa has been working at United Way for over 3 years, managing various grant programs and working closely with organizations across Southeast MI that provide food, housing, and healthcare.
Alyssa has a background in public health and has previously worked for the Wayne County Health Department and Henry Ford Health.
RESOURCES:
United Way for Southeastern Michigan (UWSEM)
UWSEM Community Investments Impact Grant Year 2025-26: Midyear Report
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU and, as you well know, the issues of food, housing and transportation insecurity are only growing. Access to health care and educational resources are becoming more difficult. The wage and income gap continues to grow in our community, and you see it in the increasing number of people that are in need. I'm David Fair, and welcome to Washtenaw United. This is our weekly exploration of equity and opportunity in our community. There are a good number of organizations that work to address these community needs, and those organizations also require support. And that's where the United Way grant programs make real impact. Our guest today is Alyssa Alonte, and she is Manager of Community Investments for the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. And thank you so much for carving out time for us today, Alyssa!
Alyssa Alonte: Yeah, thank you so much for having me! I'm excited to be here!
David Fair: We saw a pretty dramatic increase in the number of families and households in need during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we have some other economic factors at play, including higher costs due to tariffs and a war in Iran. Are you seeing even more need as a result?
Alyssa Alonte: Definitely! Yeah, I mean, for the reasons that you just mentioned, we also saw the delays and cuts to SNAP back in November. And that really drove a high need in the emergency food space. So, we saw food pantries reacting to that quickly. But the need for things like housing, childcare, health care still remains quite high, and our partners really see that on the day-to-day, and they expect the need to continue to grow.
David Fair: Prior to that, the United Way was reporting that 40% of all households in Southeast Michigan struggled to afford basic needs--40%. Do you anticipate that when next year's report comes out, that number is going to reflect even higher?
Alyssa Alonte: It may. I surely hope it doesn't. You know, we want to make sure that people are getting the things that they need. I hope it doesn't, but it may be higher just because things are getting more expensive. Things are becoming more hard to afford. It's hard to afford your basic needs, and our target populations that we try to serve is this ALICE community. And so, what that stands for is. "Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed." And so, this is a group of people that are working. They have incomes. They have jobs. But they still struggle to meet those things like housing, child care, food, utilities, transportation, and it's all just very expensive and hard to attain.
David Fair: The United Way for Southeastern Michigan has invested $5.3 million into 95 different organizations over the last year. That is certainly impressive, but, as we now know, it's not meeting the entirety of the need. Now, the organization's stated goal is to help families and individuals move from crisis to stability, then from stability to prosperity. With that in mind, how do you go about determining which organizations to offer grant support?
Alyssa Alonte: We really look at a number of things. And so, like I mentioned before, we look at ALICE thresholds, so we look the data on high ALICE communities, and we want to prioritize organizations that are serving high ALICE communities and the communities that disproportionately fall below the ALICE threshold. So, that includes BIPOC communities, older adults, single parent households, and heads of households under 25 years old. So, we really want to prioritize organizations that serve those to ensure that the balance of our grant cohort is reflective and responsive to our community's current diverse needs.
David Fair: We know that Washtenaw County is one of the most economically segregated anywhere in the nation. In the entirety of your service region, does ZIP code play a role in how and where you choose to invest?
Alyssa Alonte: Yeah, definitely! We look at the top ZIP codes that are served. And again, we want to prioritize ZIP codes where we know that there is a high concentration of those who are working but can't afford to pay for what they need, those under the poverty level. We definitely look at the breakdown of ZIP codes that are served and want to prioritize serving the most people we can and using our dollars--what's the highest and best use of these dollars to serve the most people and reach the most people and make the most impact that we can.
David Fair: Once the grants have been awarded, how do you go about evaluating the impact of the money and its making and improving lives?
Alyssa Alonte: Yeah. So, once the grants are awarded, we have a mid-year report and a final report, so that our partners can report back to us on what they have been doing with the dollars. And so, we have recently put together our mid-year grant impact report, and it is on our website, so anyone can go check it out. But we look at what the partners utilize the dollars for. For this most recent grant cycle, we have our mid-year impact report that shows that 72% of partners used it to fund staff salaries and benefits, 40% used it to fill gaps, to provide wraparound service to their clients, 27% supported maintaining a physical location in their community. And they also report on what different services individuals received. So, over 170,000 individuals received food services through this grant opportunity. 20,000 received youth opportunity services, so out-of-school time, summer camp activities, legal services, transportation, economic mobility. We asked them how many partners they've served and what kind of services they've received. And then, we also ask for success stories. And so, we'll hear straight from our partners what the dollars have done for them. And so, we've seen, like in the past, as I mentioned, the SNAP cuts during the funding cuts back in the fall, our partners had reported that this money allowed them to keep their pantry open and keep getting food to people who need it when those funds were cut.
David Fair: Once again, this is 89.1 WEMU and our Washtenaw United guest today is Alyssa Alonte from the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. And I'm so glad you touched on the organizations themselves and what they are facing. Not only is it more people in need, but there's higher employment costs and health care costs to keep up with. How much struggle do you find that these support organizations you work with are having in these most uncertain of times?
Alyssa Alonte: It's a lot of struggle, you know? They're experiencing disruption in government funding. They're experiencing a lot of uncertainty. They're experiencing a lot of burnout. They're on the front line running food pantries, running emergency shelters, serving meals to people. It's a really tough job, and they experience a lot of burnout. And they are increasing it as they're seeing needs increase in the community. And so, it's really difficult for these partners. We hear that non-profits, this is a tough industry. It's a tough job to keep going to every day when it can be so heavy. So, we really try to be there as best we can for our partners. And that's what some of this flexible funding does. It's not as restrictive as other funding sources. You can use it to pay for staff salaries. You can use it for training or further education opportunities for your employees. Like I said with SNAP, you can use it when other funding has been cut. It's a flexible way to keep your operations running, to keep your services going, so that you can still serve the people in your community when they most need it, especially when there are disruptions like funding cuts and delays and amidst all the uncertainty we've been talking about today.
David Fair: Well, we certainly love to hear the success stories among all the challenges, but those challenges do remain moving forward. What are you most optimistic about heading into the second half of 2026 and beyond?
Alyssa Alonte: I would say that I'm most optimistic about the way that there has been so much collaboration in the sector. We're hearing more and more from our partners that they want to meet with each other in person. They want to build stronger relationships with one another. And that's something that United Way has been trying to facilitate is these gatherings amongst service providers, just so that we can have a space where we can talk about the work together. There's solidarity. There's problem solving. We can figure out how to work together and make our ecosystem a lot stronger and make the safety net a lot strong. And that's just something that we have been working towards at United Way. And we have our partner network and taking that from largely what has been Zoom meetings out of the pandemic into really a strong network of partners who know each other well and know each other's services well, so that when they meet a client who maybe has needs that they can't meet, they know who to refer them to. You know, we really want to create these relationships because that's how we can help clients get the things that they need and how we really just strengthen the social safety net in this community.
David Fair: Well, Alyssa, thank you for sharing this story of where we are and where we may be headed. I appreciate the information and the updates today!
Alyssa Alonte: Thank you so much for having me!
David Fair: That is Alyssa Alonte, Manager of Community Investments at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. She has been our guest on Washtenaw United. It's our weekly look at equity and opportunity in our community. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on X (Twitter)
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
