2025 National Home Care Cooperative Conference Scholarships
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Every year, home care worker cooperative members and developers are invited to attend the annual National Home Care Cooperative (NHCC) Conference. This year’s conference, the 9th annual, will take place March 12 – 14, 2024 in Dulles, VA. The conference is organized by the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) and Elevate and hosted at the headquarters of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC).
Who Qualifies?
There are two ways to qualify for scholarships to the 9th Annual NHCC in 2025.
Benchmarking Survey Scholarships
The first way to qualify for a scholarship to the annual Home Care Cooperative Conference is to complete the annual Benchmarking Survey. This track is available to existing, operational home care cooperatives. The Benchmarking Survey is conducted annually by the ICA Group and funded by a grant to CDF from USDA Rural Development to help us understand the state of the home care cooperative sector, track progress, name challenges, and celebrate successes. CDF automatically offers up to two (2) scholarships to all home care co-ops that complete the Benchmarking Survey.
If you are an existing, operational home care cooperative, you received a link from the ICA Group to complete the 2024 survey (on 2023 data) in April 2024. The survey was due in May 2024. If your co-op completed this survey, you are eligible for scholarships. You will be invited to nominate up to two (2) member-owners as the scholarship recipients from your co-op to attend the NHCC. At least one scholarship must be designated for a caregiver member-owner who works in the field. Cooperatives are strongly encouraged to use scholarship funds to send first-time attendees to NHCC and to build conference attendance for administrators and other staff into the cooperative’s annual budget. Please ensure you nominate individuals who are willing and able to attend the Conference. Scholarship recipients must be nominated/designated by 5:00 pm EST on 10 January 2025.
NEW! Start-Up & Explorers Scholarships
The second track for scholarships is dedicated to support attendance for individuals representing start-up home care co-ops and those who are exploring the formation of home care co-ops. This is made possible in 2025 thanks to a generous supporter of home care cooperators. With these funds, CDF is pleased to extend the opportunity for caregiver workers who are working to create new home care co-ops to benefit from the learnings and networking of the NHCC. Cooperative developers and staff from incubating organizations are not eligible for the Start-Up & Explorers Scholarships but are encouraged to register and attend.
Applications will be reviewed by CDF staff. Applications for the Start-Up & Explorers Scholarships are due by 5:00 pm EST on 10 January 2025. Decisions will be shared by January 17, 2025.
What is Included?
Scholarships cover the costs of conference registration, travel, and hotel (double occupancy) for qualifying home care cooperative members and are limited to up to two (2) per home care cooperative. In addition, a lost-wages stipend of a fixed, predetermined amount is offered exclusively to scholarship recipients who are home care workers or future home care workers (in the case of start-ups). The lost wages stipend is only available for those who are remunerated on an hourly basis and whose attendance at NHCC prevents them from earning a wage during their attendance at the Conference.
Other Information
- CDF will book hotel (double occupancy) and air/train transportation for scholarship recipients. Recipients will be offered the opportunity to specify preferences and review the itinerary before booking. Once a trip has been booked, changes cannot be made. Recipients are asked to review the proposed travel itinerary within 24 hours.
- The hotel reservation is double occupancy (roommates will be assigned). If a scholarship recipient would like single accommodation, this can be accommodated at an additional cost to that recipient and/or their co-op. The additional cost to the recipient and/or their co-op is $91.20/night inclusive of taxes and fees.
If you have technical difficulties with submitting the application through Submittable, please contact support@submittable.com.