Judy Clinco
It’s not easy to start up a direct care worker association, but with the right members and allies, you’d be surprised how much you can get done.
Our association, the Arizona Direct Care Worker Association (ADCWA), started last year. We are still in the process of building up our membership, but we already have some really powerful advocates for their profession. And we have a plan for the year, which we’re all working hard to implement.
After the DCA’s Vera Salter did a Power Me workshop for us last summer, we invited all the association members who attended the workshop to become part of a leadership circle. Six of them did, and they’ve gotten a lot done in the last six months.One of our worker leaders is Charlene Brown. Charlene is a member of the ADCWA board of directors. She also went with me to Washington, DC, last spring for the DCA day of advocacy on Capitol Hill.
Another is Timothy Doe. Timothy is a graduate of the DCA’s 2009 Voices Institute National Leadership Program. He also went to Washington with the Eldercare Workforce Alliance for advocacy training and a day on the Hill. And now, with the support of our association, he’s being trained in public speaking by Toastmasters.
Another of our worker leaders, Sunny Smith, participated on the direct care worker advisory group for the DCA’s credentialing program, identifying the competencies that personal care attendants need to do the job right. And three of our members are applying to be considered for the DCA’s board of directors.
We’re starting to become known in the state. One of our state representatives met last week with me and a member of our leadership circle to talk about ensuring that CNAs in all work settings get continuing education. He’s advocating for that, and he wanted to talk to us about how we could help.
And we’re working on raising our profile and finding new allies. We’ll host our first community advisory board meeting in March, and we’ve already got some excellent groups participating, including the Alzheimer’s Association, the local Council on Aging, the state Developmental Disabilities agency, the long-term care commission, United Way’s senior coalition, and some employers. They will support us by recommending what kind of advocacy agenda we should be creating, and then supporting that agenda as we move it forward.
But the heart of our work is nurturing and caring for direct care workers so they can love and serve the people they’re entrusted to care for. If we don’t love the worker, how can the worker love others?
We connect our members with useful resources in the community resources. The YMCA gives our members a 50% reduction in dues, so they can join for just $19 a month, which includes free babysitting while they’re there. Our members can also join an urgent care group free of charge that usually costs $50 a year, which gives them access to nurse practitioners and doctors and certain tests and other medical services for a low capitated rate. They’re eligible for interest-free checking at Wells Fargo, and they get a 50% reduction in their closing costs if they mortgage a home through Nova Home Loans.
We’re also reaching out to help direct care workers improve retention rates. Our volunteer consultant, Bev Heasley, who’s an RN, is meeting with employers to offer free coaching for their direct care staff. She wants to use learning circles, in which there’s no hierarchy and everyone gets a chance to talk, to focus on the need to mentor and support new direct care workers. If this program takes off, we want to recruit more nurses from the community and train them to do this in more facilities – and then do some research through the University of Arizona’s Center on Aging to see if it’s working to improve retention.
We’re working on our communications too. We’re improving our website, which is hosted for us free of charge by jobbing.com and includes a section where direct care workers can search for jobs. And we’re developing an e-newsletter for our members, to connect them to more resources in the community.
Some of this work takes money, of course, so we’re in talks with some potential funders. We are also having members of our leadership circle talk to church organizations about direct care work and our association. We’re going to ask members of the general public to become members of our organization and support us financially, so we can move our agenda forward.
Leonila Vega, the DCA’s executive director, told me we’re one of her success stories. “Supporting not only individual direct care workers but also their organizations is central to the DCA’s strategy, and we have focused on the South and Southwest as a key region,” she says. “The worker leaders in Arizona are reporting tremendous progress in membership coalition building, benefits, and creating an advocacy agenda.”
With the support of the Direct Care Alliance and the other individuals and organizations that support our efforts, we know we can achieve a lot.
Judy Clinco
Board Chair
Arizona Direct Care Worker Association
Judy,
I couldn’t agree with you more. We here in Pa. have a core group of direct care workers that run the Pa. Direct Care Workers Association. We have been the PaDCWa for about four and a half years. At this point and time we have nearly 800 members. It’s a long road but we believe in what we are doing.
Keep up the good work, you WILL GROW….
Thank you