services
Care, built to last.
Practical solutions for care systems that aren’t working
Long-term care touches every family, every workforce, every community. But the systems behind it weren’t built for how we live today—and it shows. Families are left to figure it out on their own. Workers are stretched thin and underpaid. Older adults and people with disabilities can’t access quality care. And organizations are forced to navigate complexity instead of delivering solutions.
The CareWorks Project helps organizations move from navigating the problem to solving it. We partner with nonprofits, funders, governments, universities, and businesses to design workforce strategies, build new initiatives, strengthen policy, and reshape how care is understood. Our focus is on what works—clear strategies, aligned systems, and solutions that hold up in the real world
“Robert Espinoza has spent decades greatly advancing our understanding of the direct care workforce—the paid backbone of long-term care in this country. His important work consistently bridges policy, practice, and the lived realities of workers and families.”
— David Grabowski, PhD, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, a world-renowned center for research and leadership in health care policy and aging.
Our Services
Research & Policy Analysis
We help leaders make sense of the forces reshaping care—from changing demographics and workforce challenges to evolving policy, markets, and public expectations. Drawing on deep expertise in long-term care, caregiving, aging, and workforce development, we combine rigorous research with policy expertise to uncover what’s changing, what it means, and where opportunities for action lie.
Our Services
Custom research—combining quantitative and qualitative methods, surveys, interviews, and secondary research to answer consequential questions and turn complex evidence into clear, actionable findings.
Policy research and analysis—examining legislation, regulation, financing, and public programs to help organizations understand the policy landscape, anticipate change, and identify opportunities for reform.
Landscape and market research—mapping trends, stakeholders, emerging models, and market dynamics to reveal gaps, opportunities, and strategic possibilities across the field.
Stakeholder and lived-experience research—engaging workers, caregivers, consumers, providers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to ensure strategies are grounded in the experiences of people closest to the issues.
Research translation and thought leadership—transforming evidence into reports, briefs, frameworks, and other accessible products that inform decision-makers, advance policy conversations, and shape the field.
What We’ve Done
Narrative Change & Strategic Communications
We help organizations shape how people understand care, the challenges surrounding it, and what should change. Because narrative influences public attitudes, policy choices, and what solutions people believe are possible, we combine strategy, storytelling, and communications to make complex ideas meaningful, strengthen organizational positioning, and build demand for action.
Our Services
Narrative strategy and framing—identifying the ideas, values, and stories that can shift understanding, challenge limiting assumptions, and build support for new approaches to care.
Messaging and positioning—helping organizations articulate who they are, what they stand for, and why their work matters through clear, distinctive messages that resonate with the audiences they need to reach.
Thought leadership and content strategy—turning expertise and ideas into reports, articles, commentary, speeches, digital content, and other platforms that influence conversations and establish leadership.
Public education and campaign strategy—designing communications efforts that translate complex issues for broader audiences, engage stakeholders, and build awareness and momentum around solutions.
Creative storytelling and production—bringing strategies to life through writing, design, digital media, video, podcasts, and other creative formats that make ideas accessible, memorable, and human.
What We’ve Done
“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.
“Robert has a rare ability to connect the big picture of the care economy with the practical realities of building in it. His counsel helped shape how we at CareAcademy thought about the future of care, and he consistently pushed us to see how policy could unlock opportunities to advance both mission and margin.”
— Helen Adeosun, Chief Strategy Officer, Activated Insights, and Founder of CareAcademy, a nationally recognized platform advancing training and career development for care workers.
Program Design
We help organizations turn promising ideas into initiatives that can work in the real world. From workforce interventions and demonstration projects to national initiatives and new organizational offerings, we bring structure and rigor to the design process—connecting strategy to implementation and building programs around the people, partnerships, and systems needed to succeed.
Our Services
Program and initiative design—turning promising ideas into structured initiatives with clear goals, audiences, partnerships, activities, and measures of success.
Pilot and demonstration development—designing opportunities to test new approaches, learn what works, and build the evidence and infrastructure needed for broader adoption.
Workforce and training initiatives—creating strategies, programs, and tools that strengthen recruitment, retention, advancement, and job quality while responding to the needs of workers and employers.
Implementation strategy and technical assistance—helping organizations move from design to execution through practical roadmaps, tools, guidance, and hands-on support.
Partnership and innovation models—bringing organizations across sectors together around shared challenges and designing new collaborations, ventures, and models capable of achieving greater impact.
What We’ve Done
Strategy & Advisory
We help leaders navigate consequential choices about where to go, what to prioritize, and how to get there. Bringing an outside perspective alongside deep experience in policy, organizational leadership, philanthropy, advocacy, and systems change, we help organizations clarify their ambitions, respond to changing environments, and turn big-picture goals into focused strategies for action.
Our Services
Strategic and organizational planning—helping leaders clarify priorities, make difficult choices, and translate ambitious goals into focused strategies with clear paths to implementation.
Executive and leadership advisory—serving as a trusted thought partner to leaders navigating growth, transition, organizational challenges, and high-stakes decisions.
Growth and sustainability strategy—identifying opportunities for new partnerships, audiences, markets, and revenue that strengthen an organization’s reach, impact, and long-term resilience.
Board and governance strategy—working with boards and executives to strengthen governance, clarify roles, align around strategic priorities, and build the structures needed for effective leadership.
Facilitation and strategic alignment—designing retreats, workshops, and decision-making processes that help teams wrestle with complex questions, build shared direction, and move forward together.
What We’ve Done
“Long-term care systems around the world are grappling with the same fundamental challenge: how to support the workers who make care possible. Robert Espinoza brings a global perspective to this issue, helping connect lessons across countries while keeping the needs of care workers front and center.”
— Anne Marie Brady, Research Director for Worker Rights and Equity at the Worker Institute, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, a leading center for research and policy on work, labor, and employment.
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.
