Founder’s Playbook
Public Education
Across the home care sector, workforce shortages were deeply felt by families and providers but poorly understood by the public and policymakers. The issue was emotionally charged and systemically complex, with conversations often stopping at alarm rather than pointing toward solutions. The #60CaregiverIssues campaign was created to shift that dynamic.
Strategy led by Robert Espinoza, design by RD Design, and photography by Valdek Dmytrowski for PHI, with images courtesy of PHI.
Designing What Comes Next
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Breaking through the noise on an issue most people don’t understand. Many mission-driven organizations face a similar challenge when addressing complex social problems: their issue is invisible or misunderstood; policymakers and journalists struggle to grasp both the urgency and solvability of the problem; and public narratives fixate on crisis rather than possibility. One-off reports or campaigns fail to build momentum, leaving organizations without sustained attention or influence.
#60CaregiverIssues responded to this moment by treating public education not as a single release, but as an ongoing conversation—one designed to meet people where they are and steadily move understanding forward.
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From crisis framing to a solutions narrative. Robert played a leading role in shaping the campaign around a simple but powerful idea: changing how people understand the problem by changing what they see, again and again.
Each installment spotlighted a different dimension of the workforce shortage—job quality, training, immigration, financing, worker stories, system design—while tying individual solutions back to a broader systems-change narrative.
The campaign combined accessible language, compelling visuals, and human-centered storytelling to ensure each piece could stand alone while also reinforcing a larger arc. A predictable publishing cadence created anticipation, while alignment between policy, communications, and media strategy ensured the work reached beyond traditional audiences.
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A publishing strategy that built momentum, clarity, and reach. The campaign brought multiple formats and audiences together into a cohesive, solutions-driven platform—sustaining attention through a steady cadence, accessible design, and stories centered on workers, families, and consumers. Designed for reuse and alignment with policy and media opportunities, the content functioned as a policy resource, media engine, and public education tool.
Over time, #60CaregiverIssues reshaped how the caregiving workforce shortage was understood—reaching millions, generating sustained top-tier media coverage, and reframing the issue as a solvable national challenge. Policymakers engaged more deeply with solutions, advocates gained a shared language for action, and PHI emerged as a trusted national authority.
Similarly, organizations gain a durable narrative platform that builds understanding, aligns storytelling with policy goals, and expands influence—helping complex challenges become clearer, more actionable, and harder to ignore.
“Robert has a rare combination of deep expertise on care policy and the high-level narrative and storytelling chops it takes to build demand for solutions to these important but challenging issues.”
— Nat Kendall-Taylor, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, FrameWorks Institute, a globally respected research organization advancing the science of narrative and strategic framing in social change.
Meet the Founder
Robert Espinoza is a nationally recognized workforce and care economy strategist and CEO of The CareWorks Project, partnering with leaders to redesign long-term care systems so people live with dignity, workers thrive, and communities prosper.