Jennifer and Daniel Coker both grew up in households that valued service.<\/p>\n
Jennifer spent time in her childhood volunteering through community organizations and church programs and Daniel developed a passion for others while growing up in Lagos, Nigeria and has held leadership roles in both academic and professional organizations.<\/p>\n
The married couple decided to pool their experience and launch Seniors Helping Seniors Chicago West, which will serve families across Oak Park, River Forest and other western suburbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve put together our strengths to make a really good team for sure,\u201d Jennifer said.<\/p>\n
Their idea was to focus on both the employment and care of older residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting this project in Oak Park was to make sure that the residents there have quality care when they need it and then the other really cool part of the brand is that we do focus on employing seniors as well as companions and caregivers,\u201d Jennifer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019ve gone around, it has been expressed that what we\u2019re providing is different than what\u2019s being provided,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jennifer handles the day-to-day operations while Daniel covers the accounting end of the business, while still working full-time at his technology job.<\/p>\n
For the first in-home assessment with potential clients, Jennifer said, they go through a questionnaire with them asking general questions about themselves to decipher which caregiver would be the best fit for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to that, we see really lasting and impactful relationships between our caregivers and our clients, which then allows seniors to be treated with that dignity and respect and to be able to be independent longer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The two started the partnership in June and currently have ten caregivers. They charge $40 per hour for personal care and companionship.<\/p>\n
The Cokers\u2019 business in Oak Park is a franchise of the national Seniors Helping Seniors company, which has over 200 franchise partners in 38 states covering 400 territories across the country.<\/p>\n
The new opening will mark the 10th in the state, and serves communities including Oak Park, River Forest, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park, Stone Park, Northlake, River Grove, Bloomingdale, Elk Grove Village, Itasca, Wood Dale, Bensenville, Addison and Roselle.<\/p>\n
Some of the in-home services that the organization provides is preparing meals, light housekeeping, medication reminders and transportation to appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe caregiving is a calling, not just a career,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cOur goal is to provide quality care, support and companionship that gives seniors the opportunity to remain independent and comfortable in their own homes while giving families peace of mind. What drew us to Seniors Helping Seniors was its focus on building meaningful relationships between caregivers and clients, because those connections can make all the difference in a senior\u2019s quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Namrata Yocom-Jan, the president of Seniors Helping Seniors, said the company seeks out \u201conly the most passionate and hard-working franchise owners,\u201d and said the Cokers are \u201cwell-equipped to provide unparalleled in-home services to those in need throughout Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n
chardy@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer and Daniel Coker both grew up in households that valued service. Jennifer spent time in her childhood…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1014716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[64,960,232039,5404,232040,17073,1108,14685,14686,14689,5386,1818,14692,14693,728,14703,14710,14717],"class_list":["post-1014715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-business","tag-chicago","tag-clarendon-hills","tag-cook-county","tag-darien","tag-dupage-county","tag-elmhurst","tag-elmwood-park","tag-franklin-park","tag-hinsdale","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-la-grange","tag-la-grange-park","tag-local-news","tag-oak-park","tag-river-forest","tag-western-springs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117133038877744696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}