Bronx-Based Home Care Agency Recognized as “Outstanding Employer”
Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) is being honored with an Outstanding Employer Award from the New York City Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC) 2015 Opportunity Awards. The Outstanding Employer Award recognizes employers that exemplify “high road” policies and work toward job quality and best practices in the field of workforce development.
CHCA, a Bronx-based home care agency and PHI affiliate, employs more than 2,100 and is the largest worker-owned cooperative in the nation. CHCA is receiving recognition for its long history of developing and modeling best practices (pdf) in home care worker compensation, employment supports, and advancement opportunities.
“CHCA is deeply honored to be a recipient of this year’s NYCETC Outstanding Employer Award,” CHCA President Michael Elsas said. “Since 1985, CHCA and PHI’s home health aide training and employment program has offered thousands of New Yorkers opportunities for quality jobs, and we now serve more than 600 low-income job-seekers annually. We believe that quality jobs — defined by quality training, compensation, and benefits — are the cornerstone of our mission to provide clients with high-quality home care services. We are also committed to creating opportunities for advancement, both by promoting home care workers to administrative positions within CHCA as well as pioneering ‘advanced aide’ roles for experienced workers.”
“We received a record number of nominations this year, so CHCA’s Outstanding Employer Award is an especially high honor,” NYCETC Executive Director Mary Ellen Clark said. “There were many excellent applications but CHCA stood out. The committee was impressed by the CHCA story — demonstrating that being a “high road employer” is possible, as is providing individuals with a career pathway. CHCA’s history and results demonstrate a model worth replicating and celebrating.”
NYCETC is an association of 150 community-based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions. NYCETC members provide job training and employment services to a combined 800,000 New Yorkers annually, according to its website. NYCETC was founded in 1998 with a mission to ensure that every New Yorker has access to the skills, training, and education needed to thrive in the local economy and that every business is able to maintain a highly skilled workforce.
CHCA was nominated by PHI, its nonprofit affiliate. This year’s NYCETC Opportunity Awards winners will be celebrated at a reception on November 17 at the 32BJ Auditorium.
— by Casey Dinkin, Senior Development Associate
