The Little Things to Age in Place

A start-up company fills several important needs for older adults.

Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on Unsplash

The last few months have been increasingly difficult for my 92-year-old mother-in-law. Although she has been able to remain in an independent-living apartment, she finds that she needs outside help regularly. What she really wants is someone for an hour or two in the morning, to help her start her day, and then an hour or two again in the late afternoon to help prepare dinner. That kind of help is not available. The home care services in Cincinnati all require a four-hour minimum, and split shifts are not an option. Paying for four hours of help – or eight – is far too costly for the little bit of assistance she needs.

A new company called Naborforce offers exactly what my mother-in-law needs. Too bad it isn’t operating in Cincinnati. But in eight locales today, Naborforce fills an important gap in the services older adults need to live independently in their homes.

It’s a unique and brilliant solution with positive benefits for both givers and receivers. Naborforce matches clients needing help around the home, errands, transportation, and other non-health “light support,” with a network of  “nabors” in the community who are happy to be of service. And unlike the home care companies, Naborforce has a minimum charge of only one hour.

For the clients, it extends their ability to remain independent. For the “nabors,” a lot of them older adults themselves, it’s a totally flexible part-time gig that offers them social engagement, opportunities to serve others, and pocket money.

A Little Means a Lot

The average age of the nabors is 55, says Paige Wilson, CEO of Naborforce, “and 60 percent are people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. They aren’t really looking for a job. They’re looking for purpose and connection in their own lives. It’s people who would otherwise spend that time volunteering.”

Just like Uber drivers, nabors work when it suits them, making it easy to fit their on-call hours around other commitments. “We get a lot of empty nesters, a lot of retirees, some young widows, and some people who need a little supplemental income – but that’s not their primary motivation for doing this,” says Wilson. “If someone needs 20, 30, 40 confirmed hours a week to pay their bills, this isn’t the right job for them.”

“Our average client uses us four hours a week. That’s all it takes to make a big difference in keeping them independent and engaged, or to give their family a little bit of a break.”

Wilson, whose professional background is investment banking, conceived the idea for Naborforce out of her experience of being her mother’s primary caregiver while also raising her own family and managing her career. “I knew there was a problem because I knew I needed backup,” she says. A second insight came later when she offered to volunteer for a nonprofit, but they wanted her to commit to a set day and time each week – something impossible for her to do. That led to the idea of nabors having the flexibility to set their own hours.

Building Community

The matchup of clients and nabors is handled by sophisticated proprietary software, but it selects based on only two variables: proximity and availability. “That’s it. We’re not a matchmaker,” Wilson says. Proximity is important because a key tenet of the Naborforce philosophy is encouraging community. “Your nabor is someone in your community,” she says. “We find that right off the bat, nabors and clients find ways to connect as humans.”

As with Uber, clients are not guaranteed to get the same nabor on each call, but they can designate a favorite nabor who will be the first to be assigned – assuming their favorite happens to be on duty then. They can also designate preferred gender, and they can indicate if a nabor is not a good fit for future service calls.

One might expect the home health care companies to be defensive about the competition, but Wilson insists the services are complementary, not competitive. “We do get people who say, ‘My mom needs help bathing and dressing in the morning,’ and we tell them, ‘We can’t do that. We can make breakfast and remind you to take your medicine and ask if you need to run to the grocery store, but we can’t do any personal care.’ We don’t want anybody looking at us as an alternative to home care. If you need home care, Naborforce doesn’t solve your problem.”

She says Naborforce refers clients needing home care to those companies. In turn, home care companies “that understand our value proposition” are happy to refer to Naborforce the clients not appropriate for home health care. “Their phones are ringing all day long with people who only need two hours and they can’t give it to them,” Wilson says. “Now they can say, ‘You don’t need us yet, but Naborforce can do all those little things for you. And when you need home care, we’re here.”

Whether cooperation works that smoothly in real life, it’s clear that Naborforce has found a niche by filling a gap in services for seniors trying to age in place and maintain their independence. And it also creates work for older adults who crave human connection and serving others.

Although the startup is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, rather than Silicon Valley, make no mistake: It is a high-tech start-up funded by venture capital, with plans to continue scaling up rapidly. Currently it serves clients in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of D.C., Dallas, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Richmond, and Virginia Beach. Wilson believes the company’s strong corporate culture, built on compassion and a strong sense of community, will continue to characterize it. “The investors we have absolutely get our value proposition,” she says.

Keep your eyes open – Naborforce may be coming to your area very soon.

What’s Your Joywork?

Have you found a project or a new venture in retirement that satisfies your needs? I’d love to hear more about it! Contact me at don@donakchin.com.