A New Infrastructure for Care: Elevate Launches National Membership for Home Care Co-ops

A National Network Designed by and for Caregiver-Owned Businesses

On March 2nd, 2026, after years of collaborative design, development, and testing in partnership with home care cooperatives and development partners across the country, Elevate launched its inaugural membership program.  

Within the first month, 10 members joined, growing to 13 members today, representing 11 operational home care cooperatives and 2 start-up projects, in 11 states and over 1500 caregivers and support staff. Incubated by the ICA Group, Elevate is a national support organization with a mission to strengthen, scale, and unite home care cooperatives nationally— uplifting caregivers through quality jobs rooted in worker-ownership.

From Incubation to Transition

Operating initially as a project of the ICA Group while the new organization builds up its membership and financial resources, Elevate aims to become an independent secondary cooperative (cooperative of cooperatives) within 3 years. As a secondary cooperative, Elevate will be owned and governed by home care cooperatives, which in turn are owned and controlled by caregivers. This approach structurally ensures that caregivers' needs and interests will always be front and center. This ethos has guided Elevate’s development from the very beginning, and will continue to be a focal point for Elevate even before it makes this formal transition. 

Membership in Elevate is available to three classes of members: operational home care cooperative businesses (“Cooperative Members”), start-up home care cooperative projects (“Start-up Members”), and developers–cooperative development centers, workers centers, community organizations– involved in home care cooperative development (“Developer Members”). Early outreach is focused on operational cooperatives and is now expanding to start-ups and developers.  

Membership grants members access to 8 categories of benefits:

While members have expressed excitement about all of Elevate’s benefits, key standouts have been access to affordable health and business insurances, discounted software systems, business coaching, training, and peer exchange opportunities. 

Elevate and its partners have made a huge impact on our Cooperative by assisting us in financial planning and community education. Its monthly meetings allow space for us to express and learn about industry standards and challenges that help us all learn and grow. - Susan Rosette, Executive Director Cardinal Comfort Care Cooperative, Minnesota

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Elevate has become more than a resource hub for me—it’s a community that reminds me I’m not doing this work alone. - Kathie Rivas, Executive Director Heartsong Homecare Co-op, Washington 

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We are incredibly humbled by the strong response from the field, but also feel that it is a testament to the collaborative process that got us here. Elevate’s member benefits were developed in direct response to the needs and desires expressed by caregivers and administrators doing the hard work in the field every day— driving systems change through worker-ownership and the delivery of high-quality care that uplifts caregivers and care recipients. 

Looking Forward

Elevate will continue to listen and innovate based on the input of our members, and their changing needs, and grow alongside them until together we realize our vision of a thriving, worker-led care economy centered on respect for caregivers and the people they support; a world in which every person can live, work, and age in their communities with dignity.

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To learn more about Elevate membership visit: https://elevatecommunity.coop/page/elevate-membership 

To support Elevate’s growth, and transition to an independent secondary cooperative contact: Katrina Kazda, Vice President of Home Care Innovations at kkazda@icagroup.org for funding and partnership opportunities. 

See worker-ownership in home care in action! Attend the 10th Annual Home Care Cooperative Conference, taking place October 19-21, 2026 in Tacoma, Washington. Learn more [https://elevatecommunity.coop/page/annual-conference]