Remaking the Economy: Caring for the Care Economy

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In the past three years, the US economy has revealed an undeniable truth: it runs on care work. This labor, done mostly by women of color, is often made invisible: performed quietly and cheaply by those at the margins of society, who work hard without good pay or protections.

How can workers in the sector come together to organize—and counter this tendency of the nation’s economy to devalue care work that is intrinsic to our survival?

To explore these questions, this webinar brings together three leaders in the care economy to discuss these matters at the level of local, state, and national policy and practice. These panelists are:

Adria Powell, president, and CEO of the Cooperative Home Care Associates. Based in the Bronx, New York, CHCA, which employs 1,800 people, is the nation’s largest worker cooperative.
Jenn Stowe, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an advocacy network that works for respect, recognition, and rights for more than 2.2 million nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers nationwide.
Mary Wilder, board president and worker-owner of Shine Nurture Center Cooperative, a Cincinnati-based childcare business that converted to worker ownership and became part of the Co-op Cincy worker co-op network in 2022.

In the webinar conversation, panelists address a wide range of questions, including the following:

What is the “care economy”? What is its scale? What are the leading factors behind the sector’s rapid growth?
What are some ways that advocacy already has begun to increase the value of care work? Where have there been “wins?” What has been achieved?
What are policy priorities going forward?
How do operations change when a business becomes a worker co-op?
How can worker cooperatives grow in scale in the care sector?
What roles do labor unions play in the care economy now? What roles could they play?
How are movements working to building narratives that elevate the value of care work?
What steps can nonprofits and philanthropy take to support care workers?

Resources

Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative (now Co-op Cincy), Strategies Toward Wage Equity in Early Childhood, Cincinnati, OH: Co-op Cincy, September 17, 2018.

Paraprofessional Health Institute, Caring for the Future: The Power and Potential of America’s Direct Care Workforce, Bronx, NY: PHI, 2021.

Ai-jen Poo, Adria Powell, Dennis Hogan, Dulari Tahbildar and Ellen Vera, “The State of the Care Economy: Community Leaders Weigh in,” NPQ, Sept. 14, 2022.

Pop Culture Collaborative, “From The Help to Roma; How the National Domestic Workers Alliance Is Transforming Pop Culture,” New York, Pop Culture Collab, 2019.

About the authors

Steve Dubb

Steve Dubb is senior editor of economic justice at NPQ, where he writes articles (including NPQ’s Economy Remix column), moderates Remaking the Economy webinars, and works to cultivate voices from the field and help them reach a broader audience. Prior to coming to NPQ in 2017, Steve worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation). In his work, Steve has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Aspen 2005) and coauthor (with Rita Hodges) of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads, published by MSU Press in 2012. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade.

Adria Powell

Adria Powell is president and CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), the largest employee- owned cooperative business in the country. CHCA is a thirty-seven-year-old Licensed Home Care Service Agency (LHCSA), firmly anchored in the Bronx, New York. Powell is responsible for the oversight of more than seventeen hundred home care workers and nearly one hundred administrative staff. Nearly half of the employees own a share of the cooperative. Powell has worked for CHCA since 1988, and has held various roles with progressive responsibility. In her current leadership role, she runs an agency that empowers home health aides—who typically earn modest wages for taking care of the elderly and disabled at home—by giving them better benefits and opportunities to buy a stake in the business, serve on its board of directors, and share in profits.

Jenn Stowe

Jenn Stowe is executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an advocacy network that works for respect, recognition, and rights for more than two million nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers nationwide.

Mary Wilder

Mary Wilder is board president and worker-owner of Shine Nurture Center Cooperative, a Cincinnati-based childcare business that converted to worker ownership and became part of the Co-op Cincy worker co-op network in 2022.

More about: Economic Justice

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