One Month In: How ICJ Self-Service Is Expanding Access for Houston’s Working Families ^Featured

The ALICE Reality in Greater Houston

United Way of Greater Houston uses the ALICE framework—Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed—to describe households that earn above the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford essentials like housing, food, child care, health care, and transportation.

In Greater Houston:

• 14% of households live below the federal poverty threshold, and
• another 28% are ALICE households—working, but unable to consistently meet basic needs.

That means roughly 4 in 10 households in the region are either in poverty or on the edge of it. (Source: United Way of Greater Houston)

These are people you see every day: child care workers, cashiers, home health aides, office staff. Many are juggling multiple jobs and caregiving responsibilities, and they often face impossible choices—pay the rent or fix the car, buy groceries or pay for child care. The ALICE data underscores why United Way has doubled down on strategies that do more than meet immediate needs—they help people chart a path toward long-term financial stability.

ICJ Self-Service is designed to be a centerpiece of these strategies.

What is ICJ Self-Service?

On the ICJ Self-Service portal, people in Greater Houston can:

• Set a goal by choosing from 14 data-driven need categories—covering areas like money, work, health, family, and everyday essentials—so their goals are directly tied to factors that improve financial stability.
• See simple steps they can take toward that goal, broken down into manageable actions.
• Find local resources and referrals that match their needs, such as employment services, income support, money management, childcare, mental health resources, and more.
• Save their progress and return later, so their goals and next steps don’t disappear when life gets busy.

In short: ICJ Self-Service gives motivated community members the option to get started on their goals on their own while staying connected to United Way’s network of community partners.

Meeting People Where They Are: On Their Device, In Their Space, On Their Time

For many ALICE households, time is as scarce as money. Long commutes, irregular work hours, caregiving responsibilities, and limited transportation all make it harder to keep appointments or meet during traditional office hours. That’s where a digital self-service model becomes critical.

ICJ Self-Service is built precisely for that variability. By pairing United Way’s program expertise with PCIC’s technology platform, the portal lets users engage in ways that fit real life: on a phone in a parking lot, on a break at work, after kids are in bed, or in the middle of a tough week when help is urgently needed.

Putting Support at People’s Fingertips

For United Way of Greater Houston’s Learning, Analytics, and Compliance team, ICJ Self-Service is about more than adding another tool—it’s about changing how quickly and easily people can get help.

That “first step” focus is central to ICJ Self-Service: instead of asking people to navigate complex systems on their own, the portal meets them where they are and gives them a clear, guided way to move forward.

A One-Stop, Digital Front Door for Resources

From the start, the goal of ICJ Self-Service has been to make it easier for people to find and act on the resources that already exist across Greater Houston—without forcing them to navigate a maze of websites, phone numbers, and eligibility rules alone.

For individuals who may be hesitant to call a helpline or talk to someone face-to-face, the portal offers a lower-barrier starting point: a guided, private way to learn about options and take first steps without stigma or pressure.

Small Steps, Real Progress.

Technology That Reflects Real-World Needs

Behind the scenes, ICJ Self-Service is powered by PCIC’s data and technology infrastructure, built in close partnership with United Way of Greater Houston’s Mission & Strategy and data teams.

This work sits at the intersection of community expertise and responsible data design:

• United Way brings deep knowledge of ALICE households, local providers, and what actually helps families stabilize.
• PCIC brings experience building secure, interoperable platforms that can scale across agencies while protecting client privacy and meeting strict data-sharing requirements.

The result is not just another website—it’s a coordinated system that keeps client goals, referrals, and progress connected over time.

Innovation With Purpose

For PCIC, ICJ Self-Service is part of a broader commitment to using technology in ways that are grounded in real people’s lives, not just in abstract metrics.

One month into launch, we’re already seeing what’s possible when community vision, data, and technology pull in the same direction: more inclusive access, more flexible entry points, and more ways for people to move forward on their own terms.

Building for Real Life: PCIC’s Engineering Perspective

From how information moves securely across systems to how buttons, language, and screens are laid out, the engineering work behind ICJ Self-Service is tightly aligned with one goal: reducing friction so that help-seekers can focus on their next step, not on navigating technology.

Grounded in Human-Centered Design: Research Collaboration with Texas Tech University

From the earliest stages of ICJ Self-Service, PCIC and United Way of Greater Houston partnered with a research team from the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University (TTU) to ensure that human-centered design was not just a buzzword, but a practice. Through usability testing, diary studies, and interviews with help-seekers and navigators, the TTU team helped us center the lived experiences of people who would actually use the portal—especially those balancing work, caregiving, and financial stress.

This research partnership helped validate and refine key design decisions—such as plain-language goal categories, step-by-step action plans, and flexible entry points—so that ICJ Self-Service reflects not just what technology can do, but what real users say they need.

What’s Next

Over the coming months, PCIC and United Way of Greater Houston will continue to:

• Learn more about how people are using ICJ Self-Service so we can improve our support
• Understand which goals and resource areas are most in demand so we can co-develop new pathways to financial stability
• Refine the user experience of the ICJ Self-Service portal to better support ALICE households and others facing financial instability through human-centered design

The ICJ Self-Service portal is still new—but the need it responds to is not. As ALICE data continues to show, too many working families in Greater Houston are carrying the burden of instability alone.

With ICJ Self-Service, we’re working alongside United Way of Greater Houston to make big moves to change that—one goal, one connection, and one small win at a time.

Interested in partnering or learning more? Contact PCIC