Far too many of our Delaware neighbors, co-workers, family and friends struggle with their day-to-day financial well-being. Over 40% of Delawareans fall into this category. Delaware is part of a national network of states working to help our asset-limited, income-constrained and employed (ALICE) population to pull out of that cycle. We hope you learn more at uwde.org/how-we-work/strategic-initiatives/alice.
Delaware is unique in that we have a well-proven support system for our ALICE neighbors. Those supports are under the umbrella of a public/private partnership between the United Way of Delaware and the state of Delaware: the Stand by Me program. While several financial empowerment and coaching models exist in Delaware, we are proud of our 13-year success story with this effort. From the beginning, we created an easy-access model for all Delawareans. Today, we have over 75 partners and 60 coaches/program managers, and serve over 150 locations.
As with the best Delaware examples of success for our neighbors, Stand by Me is built upon partnerships and collective impact. Together, we lead the organizations that enable the work. And the secret sauce of that work is our incredible cadre of coaches. Today, we collectively thank and celebrate them.
They provide free and confidential financial coaching to high school students, college students/families, families with children in child care, senior citizens, minority small-business owners, those wanting to purchase their first homes and many others across Delaware with linguistic diversity and excellence.
We are proud to share a sampling of our coaches’ qualitative success stories at standbymede.org. We are also proud to share the quantitative return on investment that accrues when SBM enables Delawareans to achieve financial empowerment:
Our coaches exemplify the best of the “Delaware way.” Today, we sincerely thank them and our investors. Our current and historic investors undergird Stand by Me, and include, but are not limited to, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, the Delaware Department of Education, the Longwood Foundation, the Welfare Foundation, Barclays, Bank of America, the Delaware State Housing Authority, the Delaware Affordable Housing Group and, most importantly, individuals like you who have contributed.
We are 13 years strong, and collectively, we are changing the trajectory of our ALICE Delawareans with Stand by Me. We hope you want to learn more. As the initiative is a collective, please get in touch with Dan Cruce at dcruce@uwde.org, and we’ll make those connections happen.
Kirsten Olson
CEO, Children & Families First Delaware
Bettina Riveros
Chief public affairs officer and chief health equity officer, ChristianaCare
Brandi Short
Administrator, Delaware Early Childhood Center
Cathy Kanefsky
President and CEO, Food Bank of Delaware
Colleen Morrone
President and CEO, Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County
Darlene Sample
Executive director, Interfaith Community Housing of Delaware
Maria Matos
President and CEO, Latin American Community Center
Wendy Marsilii
Executive director, New Castle County Head Start
Karen Speakman
Executive director, NeighborGood Partners
Kevin Gilmore
CEO, Sussex County Habitat for Humanity
Dr. Michelle Taylor
President and CEO, United Way of Delaware
Paul Calistro
Executive director, West End Neighborhood House
Dr. LaVerne Harmon
President, Wilmington University
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
