Jennie Smith left the comforts of her old life in the Philippines and arrived in Texas in 2001. At a petite height of 5’3” with bobbed black hair, Smith could pass for any typical Filipino homecare worker. Yet she arrived in America without any housework experience. “When I arrived from the Philippines, I didn’t know how to cook or clean,” said Smith. While having maids to do the housework was fairly common in the Philippines, Smith was starting a new life and such luxuries were not so easily afforded. She applied for a job as a bilingual teacher teaching English and Tagalog (the native language of the Philippines) but had trouble finding work as there was not much demand. Smith moved to Jersey City N.J. just before 9/11 to be closer to family and look for a job but found that, after the national tragedy that September, it was perhaps more difficult to find steady work as a new brand new immigrant than before. Whether it was the wariness around immigrants, the disruption in the economy of the New York City metropolitan area, or both, Smith had to find another way.
Smith’s sister invited her to visit Shelter Island, a quaint and peaceful island tucked between the north and south forks on the eastern side of Long Island, and it was there that she fell in love with the scenery. Along with her family, she has lived there ever since.
She received training as a home care aide with the local senior center and after two weeks was offered a part-time job as an aide. She started from scratch, learning her trade and catching up to the years of menial housework she was so fortunate to avoid for most of her life. A month after her training Smith was hired as a live-in aide for a couple on Shelter Island, and before she knew it her plate was overflowing with offers for her home care services.
Smith was determined to succeed. She had a reserved demeanor that carried over into her future business aspirations when starting up her homecare agency with her husband. Speaking very matter-of-factly of her history, Smith conveyed the importance of putting in “a lot of hard work, patience and perseverance plus confidence that I can do the job.”
At the onset of her post-training job search she was working three to four smaller temp jobs a week until one prominent family on the island offered her a full time job. Smith would work for this family for five years until the family head and primary homecare client passed away. This matriarch was the one who encouraged Smith to set up the agency and motivated her to go back to school and pursue a masters degree in health care policy and management.
Now in her late 50’s and together with her husband Russell, Smith co-founded Prime Care Services (PCS) in 2006. The company, based in the Smith’s own home in Shelter Island, specializes in providing immigrant workers for personal home care and companionship to the elderly. Specifically, PCS promises a “Filipino Standard of Care,” and has many Filipino employees. The company’s payroll officer, Andrew Panganiban, said this motto is key to the success and continued growth of the company. “People go to us because we’re known to take care of our elderly. Filipinos put family above everything first,” said Panganiban.
Jennie Smith saw PCS as a way to give back to the country she now calls home by caring for its elderly. She also works to keep true to the company’s standard of care by working with immigrant groups and trusted contacts to hire quality Filipino workers. “I know what it’s like to not really know how to start over,” said Smith.
Prime Care Services targets high income senior citizens as potential clients in and around the Shelter Island area. More than 30% of the island’s population is elderly, and several clients have income above $300,000 annually. Surrounding areas like the Hamptons are also part of Prime Care Services’ target market. As the primary homecare provider on the island, PCS is well known among the community and relies on word of mouth among the potential employees, seniors and families seeking homecare. “We believe that having that feeling of belonging to a family encourages staff and caregivers loyalty and the client’s feeling of security knowing that even if their loved ones are so far away, they have a family who can be reached,” said Panganiban.
On the heels of California’s Assembly Bill 1217, which licenses agencies and certifies workers in addition to creating a publicly accessible caregiver registry, the issue of proper qualification and certification among agencies such as Jennie Smith’s has been under intense debate. This national conversation that could eventually affect all agencies within the United States, where families seeking homecare have a choice of going to an agency or hiring private individuals. Then there is the issue of finding qualified private workers, or qualified agencies who properly vet and train their workers. Many homecare agencies oppose proposals such as AB 1217 as a caregiver registry would disclose the names of their workers to rivals and union leaders. Laphonza Butler, president of United Long Term Care Workers, refutes these arguments, saying, “If they accept responsibility for training workers and maintaining standards, I wonder why they haven’t done it.”
But Jennie Smith stresses the importance of providing an organization that stands by its employees and workers as opposed to clients seeking free agents by themselves. She is proud of the family she has fostered in Prime Care Services and believes that an agency is more than a simple directory and that their responsibility is finding workers who “are caring, compassionate, dedicated, loyal, tolerant and hardworking.”
“The family aspect transcends in the way we treat our staff, the aides and our clients,” said Smith. “We are one big family and having that family concept exudes a feeling of security, familiarity and familial loyalty.”