Upskilling In-Home Supportive Services Workers through Emergency and Distaster Readiness Training

Health care access

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

LACO’s 242,848 IHSS providers epitomize occupational segregation for being low-income women (90%), Women of Color (73%), immigrants (50%), and English language learners (40%) in middle adulthood (50%) with less than a high school education (40%). Given persistently low wages ($18.50 per hour), over half rely on public assistance. The 287,936 IHSS consumers are most vulnerable: disabled (59%), age 65+ (40%), blind (1%), and low-income (100%).
LACO is at high risk of extreme heat, wildfire, inland and coastal flooding, extreme precipitation, and drought. Mobile home residents and those reliant on electrically powered medical devices are underrepresented in spatial analyses. (LACO Climate Vulnerability Assessment)
People with disabilities are four times more likely to die than the general population during disasters. (U.N.)
Latinos are twice as likely to live in areas most threatened by wildfires, representing 18% of the general population but 37% of individuals at extreme risk. (risQ)

Each person who perished in the January 2025 wildfires was over age 70 and/or disabled. In mourning these tragic but preventable losses, California Association of Area Agencies on Aging Executive Director Christina Mills pleads: “We need multi-pronged approaches that include helping individuals create personal preparedness plans. What if every social and human services organization had personal preparedness as part of their intake process? It's a start and one way to help disabled folks be better prepared.”
CCA is ideally positioned to heed this call to action. In 2022, we developed the nation’s first and only multilingual, multi-week EDR training program to help caregivers prepare for, respond to, recover from, and adapt to climate-related emergencies and natural disasters.
The six-week course, offered in English, Spanish, and Chinese, addresses the connection between climate change and care, environmental justice, community resilience, emergency planning, adaptation to poor air quality and extreme heat, power outage management, weatherproofing, fire hazard reduction, communication strategies, inclusive emergency planning, techniques to safely move a person with limited mobility, and trauma-informed, culturally sensitive communication strategies. Recognizing the urgent need for this curriculum, the California Workforce Development Board funded the pilot, and RISE Partnership in Oregon and SEIU 775 Benefits Group in Washington have licensed it.

CCA’s vision for success is to professionalize the long-term care industry, improving job quality and helping older adults and people with disabilities live longer, healthier, and happier lives.
The state established the IHSS program to ensure consumer health and safety, yet it does not require any caregiver training nor fund it. Through EDR, CCA prepares caregivers for the exact moment when the most vulnerable individuals are at greatest risk.
In the words of a CCA alumna: “The knowledge and skills I learned from the classes were vital and helped me be prepared for the disaster [and evacuate the Eaton fire]. I had a bag with essentials and medicines ready that I quickly grabbed when I left the house with my consumer. Now, I always have my consumer wear a mask when the air quality is unhealthy.”
EDR training is a CCA policy priority. We are committed to program expansion statewide because caregivers do make the difference between life and death, and trained caregivers more so.