Carina
Model & Strategy
The Problem
Caregivers are in high demand, but many care workers struggle to find full-time work and new clients. Despite home and child care workers winning one of the largest union-organizing victories in recent memory — demonstrating the power of women and BIPOC-led organizing — care providers still do not have livable annual incomes due to lack of full-time work. Home care is the largest and one of the fastest growing professions in the U.S., with over 1.2M new care jobs projected from 2019 to 2029. Yet, these workers continually earn low annual incomes at just under $30,000. Care seekers already struggle to find quality care nearby, and the U.S. is demographically at the beginning of a spike in demand, signaling a coming crisis in caregiving. Providing care professionals with access to full-time work, new clients, and choices will increase economic security for care workers and their families, and these upstream investments in quality home and child care will pay off over time as they avoid costly downstream events like hospitalizations.
The Solution
Carina has created a tech-enabled care matching platform to connect the supply of care workers with vulnerable home-based populations more safely and efficiently, delivering increased worker earnings and increased access to care. Licensed home care workers can register for an account online, allowing them to build and control a full-time work schedule across multiple clients. Meanwhile, care seekers — including elderly and disabled individuals or their family members — can look for support with activities such as meals, personal care, medication management, mobility, or other daily living tasks. Carina offers services in six states and partners with labor unions, government, advocacy organizations, and service providers to ensure their tools provide access to quality care and good jobs.
In their first five years, Carina scaled from one state with one offering to six states with three offerings, generating over $80M in earnings for care workers. In the next five years, Carina aims to generate over $250M in earnings for care workers by increasing partnerships and network effect through replication in new states and deepening the footprint in current states.
Nidhi has spent 20 years in the labor movement, finding ways to empower workers to thrive. Prior to starting Carina, Nidhi served as national research director at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Carina was selected as MIT Solver in the 2022 Global Challenge: Care Economy, and Nidhi joined the inaugural cohort of MIT Solve’s Black and Brown innovators. She holds a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School.
Impact
10,000 care matches made between care seekers and care workers, resulting in 5,000,000 hours of care delivered
$80,000,000 in earnings for care workers
