Cooperative Home Care Associates

The Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) is the largest worker cooperative in the United States, a unionised entity operating within a challenging home care landscape. It successfully combines worker cooperative governance with union partnership (1199SEIU), aiming to improve job quality and address systemic devaluation of home care workers, which disproportionately affects women and people of colour. Despite facing challenges like low government reimbursement rates and competition from for-profit agencies, CHCA demonstrates higher wages, lower turnover, and increased worker participation compared to traditional models. Through innovative training programs, strategic partnerships, and advocacy efforts, CHCA strives to create a high-road model, impacting both its internal workforce and the broader home care industry. However, achieving greater scale and sustainability requires addressing persistent issues like workforce recruitment, low reimbursement rates, and competition from less ethical providers.