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In Our Own Words
Pearl Novack
"I have emphysema and I need care, but a nursing home shouldn't be my only option. My father built my house decades ago, and I am proud and determined to stay living in my house as long as possible. That is why we need a Consumer Workforce Council -- because nobody should feel forced to leave their home."
Pearl Novak
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Time for the Consumer Workforce Council!
A Consumer Workforce Council will expand home care options for seniors and people with disabilities -- while improving wages and providing health benefits for the direct care attendants who serve them.
Tell our Legislators and Governor Rendell: It's Time for the Consumer Workforce Council!
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Campaign News
Capitolwire: Consumer Workforce Council advocates rally for support
By Laura Olson, April 1st, 2009
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (April 1) – More than 200 people stood outside the Capitol through Wednesday’s rain showers to show their support for a proposal to create a board to organize long-term caregivers.
The proposal would create a Consumer Workforce Council, which would establish a registry of caregivers who work with the elderly and disabled, and it would serve as an advocate for higher wages and health insurance for those workers.
PLS: Groups Urge Governor to Build the Consumer Workforce Council
By Jeff Cox, April 1st, 2009
Standing in a pouring rain behind the Main Capitol Building, people with disabilities, seniors and home care attendants joined several lawmakers in urging Governor Rendell to build the Consumer Workforce Council. According to advocates, the Council would be a board of home care consumers who would expand and protect home care through developing cost-effective solutions to bring home care attendants access to better wages and heath care benefits. They also claim the Council would create a voluntary registry to help match seniors and people with disabilities to qualified home care attendants and will protect home care consumers’ rights to fully manage their own long term care.
We Did It!
On April 1st, over two hundred people with disabilities, seniors, and home care attendants gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to tell our legislators and Governor Rendell that now is the time for the Consumer Workforce Council.
With support from over a dozen legislators who stood with us, lots of press coverage of all of us urging lawmakers to move quickly on the CWC, and strong representation from the whole state, we know that we are well on our way to building the retainable, reliable home care workforce people with disabilities and seniors need.
Meet Joe Pepe and Brenda McFadden
Joseph Pepe lives in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Even though he’s lived with a progressive muscle disease since he was a child, he’s always been independent and active in his community. "My problems are versatile," says Joe. "And I really need assistance with everything I do."
Because of the hard work of direct care attendant Brenda McFadden -- who has been working for Joe for six years -- Joe is able to stay at home, and to live the independent life he chooses. But because of the way our long term care system works -- workers like Brenda earn an average of $8.25 an hour -- with no health benefits. "To go for six years without health care insurance -- that’s not fair, to us, and to our consumers," says Brenda. "If I’m sick, I can’t come around him, if I just can’t get medicine. The current situation means that he has to depend on us to stay healthy."
Watch this video of Brenda and Joe working together -- and telling their story about why every Pennsylvanian should have the right to choose to live at home. Learn why they support Pennsylvania's Consumer Workforce Council.