Care Brings Care
Individual Work #Project Management #Design Research #Service Design #Co-create #Facilitation
Partner @Polus International College标榜国际职业学院 @Jinxin Fuxing Elderlycare锦欣福星康养 @成都市青羊区文家社区卫生服务中心
This is an ongoing project! I will update you more, let's keep in touch!
Partner @Polus International College标榜国际职业学院 @Jinxin Fuxing Elderlycare锦欣福星康养 @成都市青羊区文家社区卫生服务中心
This is an ongoing project! I will update you more, let's keep in touch!
Bridge pathfinders and pioneers in the caregiving industry with the design.
HMW
How might we establish communication between fresh talent and caregiving leaders in the industry, to give the ecosystem of the caregiver labor force market in Chengdu sustainable career development?
The Story
Background
China’s caregiving ecosystem faces instability, with high turnover and a lack of professional training. Despite government investment, over 70% of caregivers leave within two years, Leading to the perception that caregiving requires no specialized skills. Care Brings Care, a Chengdu-based service design project, seeks to bridge the gap between caregiving students and industry leaders, aligning workforce supply and demand.
Current Result
The project included a month-long workshop addressing real institutional challenges and ended with a pairing process that connects students with industry leaders who align with their career aspirations. By supporting students in developing long-term career plans, Care Brings Care helps institutions build a more sustainable workforce and gradually reshapes societal perceptions of caregiving as a skilled profession. Ultimately, the initiative aims to evolve into a community-driven program, ensuring its sustainability and long-term impact.
First Care Bings Care in Dec.2024
Students working on the chanllenges
Leaders listening to the student's presentation
Leaders discussing about the presentation
Students presenting their solutions
Students presenting their solutions
Pairs Making between Leaders & Students
Pairs Making between Leaders & Students
Selected Process
Looking at positive deviance
By analyzing the stakeholders' ecosystem map, I identified several missing links between caregiving students and institutional leaders, which in turn impact workforce development:
1. During the first-year internship, leaders do not trust students’ operational skills, and students do not receive sufficient hands-on training. As a result, they lack a deeper understanding of the industry.
2. During the second-year internship, there is a misalignment between the routine tasks assigned by leaders and students’ expectations of their work, leading to a disconnect in their development goals.
3. After graduation, due to the high demand for labor in the caregiving industry, students are highly likely to work for institutions they do not fully understand. This often results in dissatisfaction with salaries and benefits, ultimately leading to turnover.
Ecosystem map: Identifying Gaps Between Caregiving Students and Institutional Leaders Across the Educational and Early Career Journey. Highlights include trust deficits, misaligned expectations, and a lack of preparation leading to workforce challenges.
However, this is not the whole story. After conducting 9 structural interviews and collecting 20 survey responses, I identified a positive deviant sample. In most cases, the students' experience journeys and the leaders' expectation trends are misaligned, often resulting in mismatched peaks. However, the students in the positive deviance sample managed to excel in this context. I further analyzed her experiences using research probes and discovered the following key behaviors that changed the situation:
1. In her first year of college, she discovered her passion and motivation for caregiving (she had previously cared for her dying grandmother, which deeply moved her). During her first internship, she actively participated in hands-on training (she did not adopt a negative attitude despite the lack of trust and established a connection with her leader).
2. In her second year, she identified the areas of work she excelled in and clarified her career direction (she excelled in event planning and administrative tasks and decided not to pursue operational roles). During her second internship, she continued working at the same institution (she maintained strong relationships with the leaders, and the director created a clear career pathway for her).
3. After graduation, she exchanged her internship for academic credits and continued working at the same institution (she became a full-time employee immediately after graduation and obtained a qualification to advance her degree).
Based on the analysis of her behavioral patterns, my strategy is to apply service design to disseminate these successful practices to a broader audience, thereby improving the caregiving workforce.
1. In her first year of college, she discovered her passion and motivation for caregiving (she had previously cared for her dying grandmother, which deeply moved her). During her first internship, she actively participated in hands-on training (she did not adopt a negative attitude despite the lack of trust and established a connection with her leader).
2. In her second year, she identified the areas of work she excelled in and clarified her career direction (she excelled in event planning and administrative tasks and decided not to pursue operational roles). During her second internship, she continued working at the same institution (she maintained strong relationships with the leaders, and the director created a clear career pathway for her).
3. After graduation, she exchanged her internship for academic credits and continued working at the same institution (she became a full-time employee immediately after graduation and obtained a qualification to advance her degree).
Based on the analysis of her behavioral patterns, my strategy is to apply service design to disseminate these successful practices to a broader audience, thereby improving the caregiving workforce.
Experience Journey Analysis: A comparison of normal students and a positive deviance sample highlights key behavioral patterns and milestones across the caregiving education and career journey, revealing actionable insights for workforce development through service design.
Making connections through a creative workshop
After analyzing the needs and pain points, I found that the needs and challenges of students and leaders are inherently aligned, without any fundamental mismatch. However, traditional school-enterprise collaborations and internships have not achieved the expected results because students and leaders have not genuinely connected. Barriers such as paperwork, administrative hierarchies, age gaps, and experience levels stand in the way. Students urgently need an opportunity to be seen and guided by leaders, while leaders also require new talent to help drive the institution’s development.
I organized a creative workshop to bridge this gap to help establish connections between the two parties. The Care Brings Care Workshop begins with co-designing a realistic, institution-specific challenge in collaboration with the leaders, which focuses on students' work over the next month. During this month, students will learn and apply creative tools to achieve the following goals:
I organized a creative workshop to bridge this gap to help establish connections between the two parties. The Care Brings Care Workshop begins with co-designing a realistic, institution-specific challenge in collaboration with the leaders, which focuses on students' work over the next month. During this month, students will learn and apply creative tools to achieve the following goals:
1. Use the Ikigai model to identify their passion and motivation for entering the caregiving industry.
2. Analyze the challenge using the Problem Tree Diagram and the 5 Whys Method.
3. Explore their professional future through the Future Cove analysis.
4. Conduct daily observations and group discussions to prepare a presentation showcasing their solution.
5. Present their solution to the leaders to secure a potential pairing opportunity.
2. Analyze the challenge using the Problem Tree Diagram and the 5 Whys Method.
3. Explore their professional future through the Future Cove analysis.
4. Conduct daily observations and group discussions to prepare a presentation showcasing their solution.
5. Present their solution to the leaders to secure a potential pairing opportunity.
Care Brings Care Workshop Framework: Bridging students, tutors, and institutions through a co-design and facilitation process. This designer-decentralization approach integrates pre-surveys, personal profiles, and creative assignments to align institutional challenges with student-driven solutions, fostering meaningful connections and collaboration.
Forming a designer-decentralization frame
Care Brings Care is currently working on decentralizing the role of designers. We hope to hand over the project’s framework and guidance entirely to the caregiver community so they can run it on their own once every semester. This will help maintain a steady caregiving workforce and ensure regular updates over time.
This Project is ongoing, I will update you more, let's keep in touch!