B Corporations: Worker-Owned Home Care Coops 1st In Their Industry

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B Corporation Certification: “An Easy Decision”

Home Care Associates of Philadelphia, Penn., is modeled on CHCA and was launched in 1993.

To date, the agency has trained and placed more than 1,000 low-income Philadelphia residents in quality health care jobs.

“For HCA, becoming a B Corporation was an easy decision,” said Kulp. “It offers an effective way to let people know about our values, while offering us a way to gauge how well we’re living up to them.”

Today, HCA employs more than 150 staff.

CHCA and HCA work to improve the training and quality of jobs for low-income, unemployed inner-city residents—primarily women. This anti-poverty strategy, in turn, improves the quality of long-term services and supports for low-income elders and people with disabilities residing in the community.

National Impact – and Potential Collaboration with a New Community

Both HCA and CHCA share a common mission with the national nonprofit PHI. The nation’s leading authority on the direct-care workforce, PHI (www.PHInational.org) helps both cooperatives to strengthen their workforce development efforts.

PHI also builds on the experiences of the cooperatives to help stakeholders throughout the country implement best practices that will improve both direct-care jobs and the quality of long-term care.

These efforts help long-term care businesses to achieve greater good in the lives of their constituents, reflecting a core value of the Certified B Corporations community.

Home care workers are projected to be the fastest-growing occupations in the nation, with demand for these positions expected to increase by 70%.

“We strongly commend CHCA and HCA on taking this important step,” said Jodi M. Sturgeon, president of PHI “By choosing to become B Corporations, the worker-led boards of these organizations have shown their continued commitment to ensuring the highest standard of care within their communities.”

“Just as CHCA, HCA, and their worker-owners have used their commitment to “quality care through quality jobs” to set a higher standard for home care agencies, they will use their commitment to social and economic justice to engage the community of B Corporations,” Sturgeon said. “Home care workers are vital to the health and welfare of our nation’s families and communities.”

The results of independent B Lab B Corporations  assessments– documenting the agencies’ performance in areas of “Governance,” “Workers,” “Community,” and “Environment” – are now publically available for CHCA and for HCA.

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