Report: Advancing the Home Care Workforce

 Philanthropy has played a role in creating training programs but has rarely helped with scaling up the initiatives. Experts agreed that philanthropy has played an essential role in funding pilots and encouraging coalitions. A preliminary list of foundations that are active in the homecare and home health workforce training field is included in Appendix 5. However, they also expressed frustration that grants are often two-year projects, and sustainability and scale-up remain elusive. One successful exception is the Jewish Home Lifecare Peer Mentor Program (NYC), funded by a private family foundation. The evaluation notes that while grant funding provided initial program support, the wage increases and cell phone stipends associated with Peer Mentor Aide status became part of the employer agency’s operating budget. Implications: • The challenge for philanthropy, we believe, is to continue to fund pilots and evaluations and 1) identify strategic opportunities for sustainability and 2) to weaken upstream barriers and strengthen facilitators. • Large-scale adoption of home care worker training and advanced roles likely requires addressing state and federal policies, private industry structure, as well as the socially constructed perceptions of home care workers’ value.

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