Own the care where you live.
A cooperative where the caregivers and the families who use it both own it — and the value stays in the neighborhood. You bring the community. We carry the legal weight, so becoming an owner takes a week, not a year. Today we’re building the first community node.
Why we exist
A neighborhood that owns what growing old at home takes.
Growing old at home takes more than care. It takes a ride to the grocery store once you stop driving, a sensor that notices a hard night, and someday a robot that helps with the lifting. Today each family rents these one at a time, from companies that keep the profit and the data. We think the neighborhood should buy them once, own them together, and pass them from home to home as needs change. Co-ops in many towns can then join to buy well and share what each one learns.
This is where we are going, not where we are. Today the co-op runs a time bank in Boulder, and nothing is owned or shared yet. It is the reason we are building.
How you belong
Three simple options.
A co-op isn’t a subscription you buy — it’s something you belong to. Take part at whatever level fits your life. There are only three.
Think of it as building a Care Neighbor Collective where you live: identify who can show up, enable matching without agency take-rates, oversee continuity because the people who do the care own it.
Join
no duesAnyone can join. Receive care, come to the table, give a few volunteer hours when you can. No dues today, no commitment, no paperwork — and no need to ever own anything.
Member
no dues todayA seat at the table, and no dues today. Letters of medical necessity sit outside this membership. Still no ownership required.
Owner
equity + a voteA worker-owner — patronage equity and a real say in how the co-op runs, anchored by a one-time membership share, refundable on exit, amount set at launch (your stake — never a fee, never a subscription). Required the moment you’re paid to give care, because we don’t do gig work: the hands that do the work hold the title. You cannot commoditize an owner.
The one rule that matters: you can join and be a member without owning anything. But the moment you’re paid to provide care, you become an owner — everyone who earns from the co-op owns a piece of it.
Why own it, now
The one thing the machines can’t take.
Every year, AI does more of the work — and it should. But the AI industry’s own numbers show exactly where it stops, and it’s the ground a co-op stands on. Four lines a neighbor can hold onto:
The care stays human.
The hand on the arm, the ride to dialysis, the sitting-with — the physical work of care is the last thing to automate. Robots still manage barely one household task in ten. The people who do this work are the co-op, and they own it.
The judgment stays human.
AI helps most with tidy, repeatable tasks — and helps least, or even hurts, where real judgment is needed. Knowing what a family actually needs is judgment. That’s the caregiver’s and the companion’s work, not a model’s.
The paycheck carries less home.
Money reaches a household three ways: a paycheck, a government check, or owning something. In 2026 workers got 52.8 cents of every dollar businesses produced, the lowest share since the count began in 1947. Owning is the other way in, and today the richest tenth of households hold about 88% of the stock families own; the bottom half hold about 1%. A care co-op is ownership a neighbor can actually hold. What it pays back, if anything, will be set at launch with counsel; nothing here promises income.
So the trust has to be owned.
People don’t trust the tech companies or the government to govern AI — barely a third trust anyone in charge to get it right. The answer isn’t a slicker app. It’s owning the thing yourself, with your neighbors. You cannot commoditize an owner.
Figures: Stanford HAI, AI Index 2026 — robots complete ~12% of household tasks; AI shows weaker or negative effects on judgment-heavy work; public trust in institutions to govern AI sits near one-third. Labor share: BLS, nonfarm business sector, Q2 2026. Stock ownership: Federal Reserve, Distributional Financial Accounts, Q2 2026.
Becoming an owner
We take the legal headache.
The reason most neighborhoods never start a co-op is the paperwork wall. We stamp it out once, from a proven template, and hand you the same kit every time — so node number seven is a form, not a legal project.
What co-op.care carries for you:
- Charter & bylaws — from a standard, proven template
- Entity formation & the tax setup
- Payroll, workers’ comp & W-2 compliance
- Background checks & insurance
- Member classes & patronage — so workers and families own it
- The software & matching rails — at cost, not a take-rate
The promise: no franchise fee, no royalty. You are an owner, not a franchisee. The value your community creates stays with your community.
How it holds together
Co-ops within co-ops — without paperwork within paperwork.
You don’t incorporate a company for every family. That would bury the very people it’s meant to free. Instead there are only two real entities — and the “smaller co-ops” live inside them, as who-owns-what.
| Layer | What it is | |
|---|---|---|
| co-op.care | The shared home — software, back-office, and the movement all the local co-ops belong to. | a co-op of co-ops |
| Your local co-op | One cooperative per community that caregivers and families both own, as two classes of members. | one entity |
| Caregivers | The worker-owners — a class within your co-op, with their own voice and their own share of what they build. | membership |
| Families | The families served — a class within the same co-op, so the people who receive care help govern it. | membership |
| A block / a circle | A family and its neighbors caring for each other — a group and a handshake, nothing to file. | a circle |
The rule that keeps it human: minimize entities, maximize members. We only form a corporation where people jointly own something or employ someone. Everything lighter is a membership or a circle — instant, no dues today, and yours.
One umbrella, held from below: together, this is the co-op.care federation — every circle, every local co-op (Rossmoor is the first forming), the time bank, and the care grid, under one name and one standard. The umbrella is not a company above the co-ops. It is a cooperative owned by them: each local co-op holds a member’s seat and a delegate’s vote in co-op.care itself, pays a flat at-cost share for the rails, and carries the name only as long as it keeps the promises. Federated of co-ops, by co-ops — that is the whole design.
Honest footing: we’re early — pre-revenue, building the first community node now, and looking for the neighbors and stewards who want to build the first ones with us. This is co-building on a proven model, not buying a turnkey business. The founders of the earliest co-ops help shape the whole federation.
Your neighborhood can own its care.
Start where you are — join, gather a circle, or found a co-op. We’ll carry the weight you shouldn’t have to.
Found a co-op