Home Care Cooperatives


Across the country, in-home care providers are organizing to build their own agencies. Caregiver-owned cooperatives build wealth and increase job quality for caregivers while providing high quality care to patients.

KDC continues to participate in this effort to develop and strengthen the home care cooperative business model. In 2019 & 2020, Keystone Development Center (KDC) was awarded Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grants from the USDA to explore the opportunities to develop worker-owned home care models in the rural mid-Atlantic. The SDGG funds will be used to create better quality jobs for women of color, immigrants, and the working poor that make up the caregiving workforce through the cooperative business model.

In an industry where the work is emotionally and physically taxing and low paid, where benefits are limited, hours are inconsistent, and career advancement is nearly non-existent, recruitment of enough caregivers to meet demand is a significant challenge. However, caregiver owned cooperatives, which increase job quality for caregivers and provide better quality care and outcomes for patients, provides a better model.  Already there are twelve caregiver-owned home care cooperatives in operation around the country, and nearly as many are currently under development. Sign up below to get involved.

KDC will support your team with:
  • cooperative education
  • business planning
  • marketing plans
  • financing your cooperative
  • and more!

    Sign up to receive our caregiver newsletter!

Picture
An example close to home is the Philadelphia-based Home Care Associates (HCA). Throughout its history, HCA has trained and placed more than 1,800 people in quality employment. Today, nearly all of its 170-member staff is made up of women who are also the cooperative’s worker-owners.

KDC's Caregiver Information Session
In October of 2020, KDC held a series of virtual information sessions for caregivers about the cooperative model in home care. Watch the recording to learn more about the model and the exciting opportunity to expand worker-ownership to caregivers in PA.

If you are interested in learning more or setting up another live information session, fill out the form below!

Special thanks to:
Nora Edge, Capital Home Care
Terrell Cannon, Home Care Associates
Deborah Craig, NWCDC

    Join the movement!

Home Care in the Age of Shelter in Place

Many elderly, the ones most vulnerable to COVID 19, rely on in-home caregivers. Now, they’re faced with a difficult choice: open their homes to possible contamination or forego life-sustaining care that allows them to live independently.​