The Care Collective is redefining care and relationships in far Southwest Virginia.

“We’re creating a hybrid nonprofit and worker self-directed nonprofit that will collectivize the cost of care work while creating just and equitable pay structure for care workers across multiple fields. “We’re building a network where care workers are seen as whole people where their identities and experiences are a celebrated integral part of their work instead of something they have to hide in the workplace.”

In addition to more traditional services, we will work to open up space that envisions new ways to participate in all types of community care. We aspire to be an incubator for the development of new systems of solidarity. “We take responsibility for each other because we believe that we’re all that we have” as our friends at PK say. We recognize that true care requires advocacy and confrontation, and is not neutral in the face of oppression and injustice. Community care is messy and is not always soft, and does not come from sterile, one-size-fits-all templates or “right” solutions. We dream of a network with various entry points and roles to hold the messiness, and we are open to sharing the weight of care and allowing our process to be emergent and changing as we grow.