We've spent thirty years spreading what makes health, dignity and well-being possible outside the clinic's walls.
Our next challenge? Strengthening the backbone of health in every community: caregivers.
The caregivers and care workforces navigating our most complex and strained systems are too often asked to do the impossible — without the power, funding, data, or support they need.
We’re co-designing with them to build a healthier, more equitable future.
Why it matters
The workforce most critical to our health is the one we’ve invested in the least.
Caregivers and care workers hold our health together between appointments — in homes, neighborhoods, and daily routines. That’s where health actually happens, and it’s the part of the system we fund the least. Meanwhile demand for their work keeps climbing, while they remain underpaid, undercounted, and unseen.
9.7M
Caregivers needed
Between 2024 and 2034, the U.S. will need 9.7 million caregivers to support a rapidly aging population — making direct care the largest hiring need of any occupation in the country.
$26K
Median annual pay
The typical care worker earns just $26,000 a year, leaving many caregivers struggling to support themselves and their families while providing essential care to others.
75%
Annual turnover
Home caregivers experienced 75% annual turnover in 2024 —a sign of a system that too often leaves caregivers underpaid, under-supported, and unable to remain in the field.
Sources: PHI, Direct Care Workers in the U.S.: Key Facts (2025) · Activated Insights Benchmarking Report (2025)
We’re building the conditions care needs to thrive.
Not for the care workforce, but with them — alongside the communities they serve and the institutions that fund and shape care.
Living wages
Trusted data
Stronger networks
Decision-making power
Because when they have what they need, everyone’s health improves — especially in under-resourced communities.
Our work in action
What co-design looks like on the ground
Advancing access to and support for doulas
In New York and beyond, we work with doulas, advocates, and health systems to expand access, secure living wages, and make doulas respected members of the care team for new parents and their families.
Explore this work →
Mobilizing community-based organizations
We bring community leaders and local workforce partners together to connect, share what's working, build collective power, and shape solutions that reflect what communities actually need.
Explore this work →
Making care work sustainable
We help community health workers, promotores, and other care workers access the training, support, and financing they need to keep showing up for their communities.
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Putting community resource data in community hands
We build data tools and platforms that are open, useful, and governed by the communities closest to the work.
Explore this work →What partners say
Join us.
Health Leads works with communities, health systems, public agencies, philanthropy, and local leaders to build a future where health, well-being, and dignity are possible for every person, in every community.
As we mark 30 years, we’re inviting everyone who believes in this work to join us in what comes next.