Caregivers hold families together. Who holds them up? 🤲

Two years ago, I made a career move to build a home care business with my family, and honestly, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

What I soon noticed was that most of the caregivers I worked with were immigrant women of color. They do some of the hardest work there is, and most of them carry families of their own, yet they receive so little respect.

So many of them wanted more: a credential, an education, and some proof that the work they do every day has real value.

One of them had been giving care for decades. She was good at it, and families trusted her, but she couldn’t pass the CNA exam because it was written in her second language. She paid thousands of dollars in tuition and failed the exam three times. Still, she never gave up, because she was determined to turn what she was already good at into a credential this new country would recognize. With our exam prep and support, she finally passed. Today she works full time as a CNA, she proudly posts photos from work, and her peers respect her. Not because she became someone different, but because the world can finally see what she always knew how to do.

Her story, and many others like it, is why I kept training and supporting caregivers.

Since then:

📚 We’ve trained 18+ caregivers across 3 cohorts of our 3-day caregiver training course
🩺 20+ caregivers have earned their CNA licenses with our exam prep and support
🌏 Almost all are immigrants, and most are women of color, building new lives in a new country

Through a lot of trial and error, and by really listening to our participants, we learned that caregivers need more than clinical training. They are eager to learn about the ethics of care, and they want training that honors both their skill and their labor. Our course grew out of these two years of listening and practice. It gives caregivers the skills to do the work well, and just as importantly, the language to see its worth. 💛

Now that work has a home in Accesso Care Works, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit that trains caregivers for the whole field, not just one agency.

In January, we launch our next training cohort in a new space of our own. I know the course fee keeps too many people from walking through the door, and as a new organization, we also need the basics: a place to train and people to run it.

🎯 Our goal is $5,000 by December 31.

🪑 $2,500 sponsors 10 caregivers’ seats in our January training
🏠 $1,500 covers our share of training space and classroom supplies for the next three months
🤝 $1,000 supports the staff and interns who support our trainings and exam prep

$250 sponsors one caregiver’s seat. Gifts of any size go toward getting our January cohort off the ground.

Please help us train the people who care for our families. 💛

— Dr. Esther Castillo, Founder, Accesso Care Works

Accesso Care Works is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. EIN: 42-4538107. Gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Who Cares for the Caregivers?

Training immigrant caregivers in Philadelphia