Community

Report on Louisiana livable wages released

LOUISIANA WEEKLY — Having a full-time job does not guarantee economic security, according to the updated ALICE Report for Louisiana published by the United Way

Published

7 years ago

January 16, 2019

Oakland Post

By Fritz Esker

Having a full-time job does not guarantee economic security, according to the updated ALICE Report for Louisiana published by the United Way.

ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The report was a collaboration between The Louisiana Association of United Ways and 11 Louisiana United Ways.

“The ALICE data shows that the economic benefits of low unemployment, increased productivity, and a booming stock market are not reaching all residents,” said ALICE report author Stephanie Hoopes, Ph.D.

The report states that low-paying service economy jobs have increased but other job opportunities have decreased. Most jobs in each state now pay less than $20 an hour, but in Louisiana 66 percent of jobs pay less than $20 an hour, as of 2016. The majority of the jobs in that percentage pay less than $15 an hour (equivalent to $30,000 a year, full-time). Twenty-nine percent of jobs in Louisiana pay between $20 and $40 an hour and only four percent pay $40-60 an hour.

“The reality is wages haven’t grown as fast as the costs of basic needs (like rent, childcare, etc.),” said Michael Williamson, president and CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Louisiana.

When accounting for age, the youngest households in Louisiana (those headed by people under 25) were the most likely to be in poverty. However, the households most likely to fall into the ALICE category were both the youngest and the oldest (those headed by people 65 and older).

In the 2016 ALICE report, the United Way highlighted the story of Ashley Durand, a young single mother working in a coffee shop. Durand released a prepared statement in a press conference for this year’s report. She has received help from the Earned Income Tax Credit and is now pursuing an associate’s degree in nursing. But she said it is still important for ALICE families to tell their stories, even though many Americans are taught to always “pull yourself up by your boot straps.”

“So many ALICE(s) are silent because they feel like they should try harder and not complain,” Durand wrote. “If others’ experiences are like my own, I can say that we are trying our best, but sometimes we need a break to change our circumstances.”

Williamson echoed Durand’s sentiment, stating that many people at the ALICE threshold are full-time workers average Americans see every day: grocery store cashiers, nursing home caregivers, and fast food workers.

“These are individuals that are working…They are doing all the right things, but they just aren’t earning the wages that would allow them to meet the needs of their families,” Williamson said.

In Orleans Parish, 53 percent of the city’s 154,355 households are at or below the ALICE threshold (29% were at the threshold and 24% were in poverty). That percentage has increased since 2010, when 46 percent of the city’s households were at or below the ALICE threshold.

Families with children are struggling to make ends meet in Orleans Parish. Eighteen percent of married families with children are at or below the ALICE threshold. Seventy-nine percent of families headed by a single mother and 60 percent of households headed by a single father are at or below the ALICE threshold.

Race affects a person’s likelihood of being at or below the ALICE threshold. In Orleans Parish, 58,558 African Americans (68.7% of the city’s African-American population) is at the ALICE threshold or in poverty. Meanwhile, 16,547 white residents are at or below the ALICE threshold (29.7%).

Stats from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development included household survival budgets for Orleans Parish. These numbers, also from 2016, indicate what it would take for someone to simply survive in New Orleans, not including any savings. A single adult would need $22,176 a year and an hourly wage of $11.09 to get by at a minimal level. A family of four would need $60,732 a year.

Williamson said the answer to these problems is not an either/or one. He said wages need to rise to reflect the increased costs of living, but there also needs to be more job training programs like those the United Way offers. Williamson said if workers are given more marketable skills, it can make employers want to pay them more.

The full Louisiana ALICE data can be found online at www.launitedway.org/ALICE.

This article originally appeared in the Louisiana Weekly.

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Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.