Essential Jobs, Essential Care-NC
The Essential Jobs, Essential Care™ initiative in North Carolina launched as a multi-year partnership between the North Carolina Coalition on Aging and PHI, a national organization focused on strengthening the direct care workforce, and is now sustained through the generous support of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. The initiative aims to advance policy reforms for direct care workers as a critical step toward ensuring quality care for older adults and people with disabilities.
Throughout North Carolina—in private homes, nursing homes, and a variety of residential care settings—older adults and people with disabilities rely on direct care workers to meet their daily needs and participate in their communities. Further, when properly trained, supported, and integrated into care teams, these workers promote better care for consumers and prevent costly outcomes. Unfortunately, despite their enormous value, direct care workers struggle with low compensation, insufficient training, and limited career paths, which drive many workers
out of this sector. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified these challenges, leaving many workers without safe, high-quality jobs—and consumers without the care they deserve.
Now is the time to transform North Carolina’s direct care workforce.
NC's Direct Care Workforce: Key Numbers
EJEC-NC Recent Events
In December 2024, EJEC-NC staff joined staff from PHI, National Domestic Workers Alliance and the NC Center on the Workforce for Health for a panel discussion of NC’s direct care workforce crisis at NC Institute of Medicine’s 2024 Annual Meeting.
In October, 2024, EJEC-NC partnered with NC Serious Illness Coalition and the NC Caregiving Collaborative for a statewide panel discussion with direct care workers, family caregivers and individuals with lived experience to discuss how NC’s caregiving crisis impacts all of us.
Recent EJEC-NC Position Papers and Public Comment Submissions
EJEC-NC advocates for a comprehensive rate analysis to examine direct care worker wages and administrative costs across Medicaid-funded services. Click here to read our position paper.
NC COA/EJEC-NC submits comments on direct care workforce federal Standard Occupation Classifications. Click here to read our public comment submission.
NC COA/EJEC-NC submits comments on NC’s CAP-DA Waiver Renewal. Click here to read our public comment submission.