CareSquare Brings Parents & Caregivers Together

As an auntie and godmother of many friends and family members with kids, I definitely see the challenges for parents looking for a caregiver they know and trust. Doing anything spontaneous as a parent seems close to impossible and having access to a good babysitter often means you have to plan in advance and even, perhaps, have a back-up.

As Web 2.0 brings light to many new and innovative solutions to age old problems, there is now a community website that addresses this challenge and connects parents and caregivers in an easy-to-use social network, much like LinkedIn, but for families, babysitters and nannies alike.

Necessity Being the Mother of Invention
CareSquare has a great story to tell. A genuine story that many parents can certainly relate to -- the need to connect and secure a trusted babysitter or nanny to care for their kids when needed -- planned or otherwise. The idea was born one night when two families were unable to find a babysitter to allow them a quick night out to see a play.

Using the night to evaluate their contacts, resources and ways in which they (parents) look for a babysitter, CareSquare co-founders Ariel Kleckner Ford and Alex Kaplinsky put their heads together to figure out how this common dilemma could be resolved.

They didn't stop that night. They did (and continue to do) extensive research, personal interviews and evaluations to understand if their experience that night was unique or were more families and caregivers not as connected as they could be. Their findings confirmed that there is a need to centralize, aggregate, localize and connect families and caregivers together in a trusted community online.

Having the opportunity to speak with Ariel Kleckner Ford, a Silicon Valley veteran, who looks at life broadly and full of opportunity, this mother of a two-year old, with another one on the way, explains that CareSquare addresses the personal and complex process of finding trusted babysitting and nanny care. "What we know today is that there are very few places that serve to collect the caregiver community. It's historically been a fragmented market," said Kleckner Ford. “CareSquare is aggregating and making these social connections online -- in one place -- for the first time."

Creating a Service with a Commitment to User Experience
In our conversation, what struck me most is their commitment to the user experience --  building the right online services to support parents with a quick and easy resource for connecting with a  babysitter or nanny care. Their commitment to user experience equally spans to their other user group -- appropriately facilitating the connection for caregivers -- going beyond what currently exists as loose and disparate resources today.

Ensuring the Solution Matches the Need
Ford, an Internet pioneer, spends her days talking to people, asking them their individual experiences, challenges, and wish lists for CareSquare. They spend a lot of their time doing field research and ongoing usability focus groups to ensure that the solution matches the need.

Having the opportunity to evaluate CareSquare in a "parent" and a "caregiver" view, CareSquare provides a super-intuitive, resource-rich service for families to evaluate resources, browse detailed caregiver profiles, assess peer-reviews and feedback provided by friends and the community. Booking care is literally "at your fingertips" and displayed in real-time so that I (as the parent view) know I have a babysitter lined up for my family's needs. For Caregivers, I immediately flashed back to my college days wishing this service would have been around to help me connect with families who could have used my babysitting services. There is an immediate opportunity to get connected and broaden "my" network of contacts and references. Caregivers enter their experience and availability in the CareSquare calendar and "voila" they are instantly available to families and access to jobs opportunities quickly.

Caresquare is a great story affirming the power of social networks online. It all started with a human need. Technology facilitated a bridge to connect resources, people and build community. Now, parents have a trusted resource online and caregivers have a place to connect and provide their services.

CareSquare Journals Their Experiences on Their Blog
Kleckner Ford takes time out regularly to journal their experiences and beta updates on the CareSquare Blog. It is a fun and personal journal by Kleckner Ford, who gives the latest updates on CareSquare, their community milestones, and personal stories juggling her final months of pregnancy and potty training her son. The CareSquare blog reflects the voice of the company, the people behind the service, and the genuine intent, passion, and connection they have for this community service.

CareSquare launched in October 2006. In just short of three months, CareSquare has reached a community of 1300 members and spans from California to New Jersey.

Comments

[Ariel Ford]

I can certainly understand the desire for as much security as possible around this type of hire - Caresquare offers background checks on the spot, and also the full ability to read the references left on caregivers by their previous employers....and the ability to contact those previous employers directly.

Many folks simply choose to leave information about their children off the site, and just use the site to contact caregivers for interviews before hiring them.

It is also great way to get contact information for caregivers your friends are already using and recommending.

Thanks for checking us out! www.Caresquare.com

[Joan]

Security on this site seemed very lax. I don't know if you could trust who exactly would see info about your children. This is the internet after all. Anyone can be anyone. I would stick to face meetings and non-cyber contacts when it comes to your children.