Nebraska’s New Homecare Cooperative Aims to Fill Critical Care Gaps
In the last four years, Nebraska has witnessed the closure of sixteen nursing homes, impacting many assisted-living residents who are forced to seek care elsewhere or manage without. In response, Nebraska’s first homecare cooperative is offering a promising solution.
Cathy Bowers, whose journey in elder care began in her Girl Scout days, has always been attuned to the needs of the elderly. Her experience spans from being a certified nursing assistant to a registered nurse managing a unit. Throughout her career, she consistently heard from residents that small helps could allow them to remain at home.
“These people have worked their whole entire lives for what they have, and now they’re forced to give it up to go into a nursing home,” Bowers shared. “There’s just little things, like, if I had someone to cook for me, if I had someone to do these things for me that I’m not able to do anymore, that I could stay home.”
Bowers’ personal life also reflected this sentiment when she assisted her grandmother with diabetes management, enabling her to stay home longer. This experience, coupled with the closure of Arapahoe’s Good Samaritan nursing home in 2021, further fueled her desire to develop a homecare service.
In Arapahoe, Heidi Thomas, a local teacher, faced similar challenges when her husband required care amidst limited local options. Her experiences caught the attention of Cindy Houlden from the Nebraska Cooperative Development Center, who was exploring the feasibility of a homecare cooperative to address such gaps.
“The state of Nebraska is becoming what they call a homecare desert or a care desert,” Houlden remarked. “There’s not only not a care facility — there’s not a doctor’s office, there’s not a hospital and there aren’t care providers either.”
In 2023, a chance meeting at a pharmacy connected Bowers and Thomas, leading to Bowers’ involvement in cooperative discussions facilitated by the Nebraska Cooperative Development Center. With support from the center, Bowers attended the National Home Care Cooperative Conference in March 2024, which was instrumental in solidifying her resolve to establish the cooperative.
“It wasn’t just me telling her, hey, this is a great idea,” Houlden said. “She met people that were like her, passionate about home care, about caring for others.”
By April 2025, Republican River Valley Homecare was incorporated with four worker-owners, including Bowers and Linda Fitzsimmons. A unique aspect of this worker cooperative is that all owners have equal say in the business, reflecting the community it serves.
Since January, the cooperative has been accepting clients within a 120-mile radius of Arapahoe, offering non-medical services like meal preparation, housekeeping, and laundry. It also assists individuals with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries.
Bowers finds daily fulfillment in her work, appreciating the moments of human connection that affirm her mission to enable clients to stay in their homes. “You come home and you reflect, and you’re like, this is why I’m doing this,” Bowers expressed. “I’m doing this to give clients the ability to stay in their own home.”
Houlden emphasized that the cooperative model is replicable and not new to the U.S., highlighting that the largest worker-owned business is a homecare cooperative in New York City. The Nebraska Cooperative Development Center is ready to assist other communities interested in this model.
“We’re here to help anyone who wants to explore this model for their community,” Houlden stated.
Bowers envisions growth for Republican River Valley Homecare, aiming to provide more individuals with the choice to age in their own homes and communities. “I want to grow into something where if people want to stay home, that is a possibility for them to age in their own homes, in their own communities, and they have the opportunity to do that, and it’s easily accessible to them,” she said.
