Concierge Care Connections · Cook & DuPage counties
Where caregivers are cared for, so they stay, and your loved ones can stay home.
At homewhere your loved one wants to stay. We help make that possible, so they don’t have to move into senior living.
$20–$22an hour our caregivers earn, paid directly by the family, with no agency markup
6 monthsof mentoring and peer support for every caregiver we place, so they stay
Why I started NorthStar
My dear friend Arezoo and my Aunt Louise had love, money and people around them. But no one around them had been trained to recognize a stroke or a wound that was getting worse. Both spent their last years in nursing care.
NorthStar exists so every family has a caregiver who is trained, supported, and who stays.
Read Kathy’s story →What we do
We match your loved one with a trained caregiver you hire directly, then support that caregiver for six months.
For community collegesSix months of post-completion support and placement tracking that help your CNA program meet the 70/70 benchmark.
For healthcare organizationsCohorts and check-ins that carry new CNAs through their first 180 days, without adding work for your supervisors.
Caregivers don’t quit seniors. They quit jobs that hurt them.
The problem we solve
Most new caregivers leave within their first year. They leave jobs where they were hurt, unsupported and underpaid. Every exit puts a new stranger in a senior’s home, and the family starts over.
A caregiver who stays gets to know your loved one. That is the person who notices when something changes.
NorthStar fixes what happens after the hire.
How it works
The same structure I used to support 1,400 student teachers a year at DePaul, built for caregivers.
Newly certified CNAs from community colleges and workforce programs, fully background-checked.
By location, care needs and personality. You meet your caregiver and one or two backups.
One first meeting with your family, your caregiver and NorthStar to set clear expectations.
Biweekly cohorts led by experienced CNA mentors, plus training in stroke signs, dementia care and safe lifting.
“Anyone can train or place a caregiver. NorthStar owns what happens after the hire.”
For families
You choose and hire your caregiver directly, so you pay less than an agency and your caregiver earns more. We handle the search, the screening and the support that keeps them with you.
When you hire a caregiver directly, your family becomes a household employer. A household payroll app makes that simple, starting at about $50 a month. It pays your caregiver, withholds and files the taxes, registers you with the IRS and Illinois, and sends the year-end W-2.
Popular choices include Poppins Payroll, Care.com HomePay and GTM Payroll Services. We walk you through the options at your kickoff meeting. NorthStar never handles your caregiver’s wages.
For colleges and caregivers
Workforce Pell requires 70% of students to complete and 70% to be employed in their field. NorthStar is the missing piece after graduation.
$700
per student for six months of post-completion support and placement tracking.
Partner with usDo the work you love, and get the support most jobs never give you.
The evidence
Two-year peer mentorship program with the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts: retention rose from 66% to 97%. Source
A proven formula
1,400
Kickoff, cohorts, mentor check-ins and a real credential. The formula that keeps new teachers in classrooms will keep new caregivers in homes.
Why I do this
My dear friend Arezoo was surrounded by people who loved her, but no one recognized the signs of her stroke. Afterward, the warm, kind caregivers who looked after her had never been trained to spot a bedsore. Hers became so badly infected that she spent her last years in a nursing home.
My Aunt Louise was living independently, with caregivers who checked in on her. No one realized she’d had a stroke. Three days later her daughter, my cousin, came to visit, found her, and rushed her to the ER. Aunt Louise spent the rest of her life in a nursing facility.
Money couldn’t buy them the one thing they needed most: a caregiver who was trained, supported, and who stayed.
Both of them had love, money and people around them. No one was to blame for what they missed; no one had been trained to see it. What they didn’t have was a caregiver trained to recognize a stroke or a wound that is getting worse, and steady enough to notice a change. That is what NorthStar builds, and it is why stroke warning signs and bedsore prevention are part of every NorthStar caregiver’s training.
Caring for elders has been part of my life for a long time. My very first job, at 13, was visiting an elder named Mrs. Loyola a few times a week. I went on to two decades in counseling and higher education, and as Director of Community Partnerships and Student Internships at DePaul University I ran placements for 1,400 student teachers a year, with the cohorts and check-ins that kept them going. NorthStar brings that same structure to caregivers and the families who count on them.
Kathy A. Iwashima, M.Ed.Founder & Program Director, NorthStar Navigation Consultants
Our team
Technical Lead
Builds our technology and automation. Founding member and Chief of Staff at Synphony, a Y Combinator–backed robotics company; Purdue Ph.D. candidate.
Strategic Advisor
Founder of Auctus Advisory, with a background at Techstars, a16z and OCA Ventures. Chicago Booth MBA.
Caregiver Community Lead
Brings hospital experience and is fully bilingual. Connects with CNAs where they gather, on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Community Partnerships Lead
Eighteen years running a small business serving older adults. Builds relationships with senior organizations across Cook and DuPage counties.
Common questions
No. Concierge Care Connections is a placement service from NorthStar Navigation Consultants. We find, screen and match your caregiver, and you hire them directly. Your caregiver is your employee, not ours, which is why you pay less than an agency and they earn more.
A one-time placement fee of $3,500 to $5,000, depending on the hours of care, paid in installments over six months. You pay your caregiver $20 to $22 an hour directly.
No. Our caregivers are certified nursing assistants and home care aides who help with daily living, and they are trained to notice changes, like the warning signs of a stroke or early skin breakdown, and alert your family right away. We don’t place nurses, so seniors who need skilled nursing care, such as wound treatment, injections, IVs or feeding tubes, are best served by a licensed home health agency.
Your family is the caregiver’s employer, so you pay them through a household payroll app such as Poppins Payroll, Care.com HomePay or GTM Payroll Services. The app handles paychecks, tax withholding, IRS and Illinois registration, and the W-2. If your caregivers work 40 or more hours a week combined for 13 or more weeks a year, Illinois also requires workers’ compensation coverage, which these services can help you add.
Every placement includes one or two screened backup caregivers your family has already met. You contact them directly when you need coverage.
If your caregiver leaves during the first six months, we find you a new one at no charge.
Fingerprint background checks, the Illinois Health Care Worker Registry, the federal exclusion list, the sex offender registry, a child abuse check and personal references.
Not yet. Our 2027 pilot serves families paying privately. We are exploring ways to support families in the Community Care Program.
Cook and DuPage counties, starting with our 2027 pilot of 10 to 12 families.
Whether you’re caring for a parent, running a CNA program or looking for a caregiving job that supports you, a short conversation is the place to start.
Kathy@northstarcna.com · 708-315-1743
Email Kathy