The Direct Care Alliance is a national coalition of state-based workers, consumers, and providers joining together to build a stable, valued direct-care workforce. We advocate for changes in public policy and long-term care practice, so that America’s long-term care system will:
We apply our mission within a three-part theory of change:
We call this advocacy framework Quality Care through Quality Jobs. A central objective of the DCA’s immediate work is to build structures for direct care workers to have a voice in our long-term care system by establishing and nurturing a network of direct-care worker associations.
In working to fulfill our mission, the DCA takes special care to convene all long-term care stakeholders—workers, consumers, employers, and others—believing that understanding and collaboration between them is essential if we are to achieving lasting change. While achieving consensus between the at-times opposing viewpoints of these stakeholders can be challenging, we have seen that it can establish incredible momentum toward reform, and we base our work around this potential.