A local movement focused on improving the lives of struggling local families and individuals is taking an interesting new tack: In addition to providing benefits directly to those in need, they’re looking for ways to help local businesses provide better opportunities for the working poor.

To many members of the general public and the business community, surprise is a typical reaction when statistics about poverty along the shoreline are shared. Building awareness of the ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) individuals’ plight is one reason behind several fall public roundtable discussions planned in local communities. Westbrook’s public discussion is set for Thursday, Sept. 28.

Local business and community leaders, town officials, clergy, representatives of non-profit organizations, and schools’ representatives are all invited to the public forum. The format of the meeting will be to frame the discussion with statistics about the ALICE population and then to break out attendees into small groups to brainstorm ideas for improving their circumstances.

The planned public meetings in several area towns were spurred by a new subgroup of the Shoreline Basic Needs Task Force (SBNTF), the Economic Action Team (EAT). EAT’s goal is ambitious: to identify steps that business, government, and community volunteer-leaders can each take to create a more productive local business environment that could add more and better jobs to help ALICE individuals who now struggle to pay for housing, childcare, and other basic needs.

The public event was announced in a Aug. 22 letter from First Selectman Noel Bishop to business and community leaders and representatives of government and the schools. The Sept. 28 meeting will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Westbrook’s Mulvey Municipal Center.

As Bishop wrote, the goal of the public meeting would be to arrive at an action plan.

“What steps can we take through business, government, and/or community action, to create [a] more productive business environment? What infrastructure improvement would provide the best support? What government or community-sponsored programs would be most productive?” wrote Bishop. “To answer these questions, we need the input of the business leaders of our community.”

Local members of the EAT include Tony Cozza, Reverend Jan Gregory-Charpentier, Jim Crawford, and Andy Schatz.

“The SBNTF is a group of dedicated, mostly volunteer, organizations in the 11-town shoreline region [that have] in the last several years come together to coordinate efforts for needy individuals. Groups represented include the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries, Connecticut Food Bank, End Hunger Connecticut, Westbrook Council of Beaches Alleviating Hunger Committee, the Estuary, the Literacy Volunteers, The Connection, and social services coordinators from some of the towns,” said Cozza.

“The process that we have been following is that each town will have several representatives [who] meet with town government and business leaders to explain the plight of ALICE individuals, give an overview of the SBNTF, and ask a series of questions to help the group attain its goals. Westbrook, along with Old Saybrook and Essex, are the first three towns that are being investigated,” said Cozza.

Members of the general public are also encouraged to attend, listen to the discussions, and learn more about how to help ALICE individuals.

“ALICE” is a term arising from a 2014 study developed by the Connecticut United Ways and Rutgers University. While ALICE households are not considered to meet the federal poverty standards, their limited income means they struggle to pay for necessities like housing. Some refer to these households as the “working poor.” According to the Middlesex United Way, 22 percent of Middlesex County households are ALICE while six percent are in poverty.

To learn more about ALICE, visit https://alice.ctunitedway.org. For updates about the Shoreline Basic Needs Task Force efforts to raise awareness about ALICE individuals, visit the Shoreline Basic Needs Task Force Facebook page.