In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor interviews Hawa Dicko, owner of Compassion Adult Daycare in Aurora, Colorado. Hawa shares her journey from Ghana to establishing her business, which provides non-medical day-to-day care for elderly individuals and those with developmental delays. She discusses the challenges of transportation and caregiver recruitment, her involvement with the WBE community, and her plans for expansion. Hawa emphasizes the importance of community, caregiving, and support systems, highlighting her commitment to empowering women in business and providing quality care.
As the Founder and CEO of Compassion Home Care, Hawa Dicko is committed to delivering exceptional home care services to individuals and families throughout Colorado. At Compassion Home Care, our mission is to provide compassionate and personalized support that allows clients to maintain their independence and dignity while receiving the assistance they need in the comfort of their own homes.
With a focus on quality care and client-centered services, we strive to create a nurturing and supportive environment where individuals can thrive. Our team of dedicated caregivers is highly trained and passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of those we serve.
At Compassion Home Care, we offer a range of services tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, including personal care, medication management, companionship, and household assistance. We work closely with clients and their families to develop customized care plans that promote overall well-being and enhance quality of life.
Hawa is proud to lead a team that is dedicated to providing compassionate and reliable care to our clients. Together, we are committed to making a meaningful impact in the lives of individuals and families in our community through the compassionate services we provide at Compassion Home Care.
Connect with Hawa on LinkedIn.
Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Hawa Dicko with Compassion Adult Daycare. Welcome.
Hawa Dicko: Thank you.
Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn more about your business. Tell us about Compassion Adult Daycare. How are you serving folks?
Hawa Dicko: Thank you so much for the opportunity and bringing me along. My name is Hawa Dicko, a wife and a mother of four beautiful girls. I was born in Ghana and I live in Aurora, Colorado. I came from a family who instilled in the value of hard work, community, and family. So, prior to starting my own businesses, I worked in a healthcare field as a caregiver.
Hawa Dicko: While I was working in this field, I noticed the lack of women in leadership, which then inspired me to use my skill to learn in something that is greater, and I started to open an adult daycare in Aurora, Colorado. So, Compassion Adult Daycare is my first company. I opened and I manage it together with an amazing team of workers in the past decades, provided a supportive and engagement environment for elderly individuals, fostering a sense of community and well-being.
Lee Kantor: So, tell us about the service. Who is a good customer for you? Like what are they going through where your service helps them?
Hawa Dicko: So, I serve individuals, elderly, and people with developmental delays, and they’re shortened as IDDs. So, people with mental delays who need help go into the community getting their health care, going to doctor’s appointments, going to maybe the library to pick up books, going to the mall to see something, to go buy something, they’re going to their doctor’s appointment and all that. So, people in the community, more of elderly and more of people with developmental delays.
Lee Kantor: So, you’re helping them with kind of non-medical day-to-day care.
Hawa Dicko: Yes. Yes.
Lee Kantor: Are you giving them their medicine or do you give shots, things like that?
Hawa Dicko: Thank you for your question. I don’t give them shots, but I give them medication if they bring it with the doctor’s order and I have a prescription on it. I have a few of my people trained in my facility that we do provide that care, but we don’t give shots.
Lee Kantor: Right. So, if they give you these pills have to be taken at 3:00 p.m., your team can make sure that happens?
Hawa Dicko: Yes, please. We do that.
Lee Kantor: Right. Like if I have an elderly parent, that’s one of my concerns that they’re taking their medication properly and they might forget, and then you make sure that that happens.
Hawa Dicko: Yes, we do that. And some people need companionship. Some people are just home alone. They need somebody to come sit with them, talk to them, take them to the appointment, remind them that they shower, they did other daily activities. Yes, we do that as well.
Lee Kantor: So, are you there typically 24 hours a day? Do you have a team of people that could be there 24 hours, or is it mostly like kind of shifts of maybe 8 hours or 16 hours?
Hawa Dicko: Yes. So, we have the day center that is operated from 8:00 to 4:00. And then, we have the other CNAs that go to other people’s homes and that one is also 24 hours care that we do. Yes.
Lee Kantor: So, you can actually go to the person’s house so they can kind of stay at home longer rather than go into a facility or you have a place for them to go during the day?
Hawa Dicko: Correct.
Lee Kantor: Now, you said that you were a caregiver earlier in your career, what compelled you to kind of take the risk and the initiative to start your own business?
Hawa Dicko: Yes. As I said, working with that field, I noticed there was a lack of women leadership and people opening their own business like that as ladies, as women, so that made me step in. And, also, I love helping people and it’s my passion. Waking up knowing I’m going to meet some ladies or some people at my day program or going to people’s house giving them the care that they need makes me happy.
Lee Kantor: Now, are you at the point where you’re not doing a lot of the care anymore, but you’re just finding the appropriate caregiver and managing the business and getting new business?
Hawa Dicko: Right. I do most of that. And some time, there are some clients I can’t just say no, I don’t want to see them. I have some clients, they just come here to see me, so usually we work together.
Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that as the population ages there’s more and more need for caregivers for this segment of the population?
Hawa Dicko: Correct. It is, and I am finding most of them. But now, the geographical locations and places that we can travel and go is limited because of transportation and other boundaries that have come to us.
Lee Kantor: So, there’s a lot of need, but it’s difficult for you to get your caregivers to the places?
Hawa Dicko: To them, correct.
Lee Kantor: So, that’s the next challenge you’re working on?
Hawa Dicko: Yes, I am. So, I’m trying to find access, I’m trying to get some funding and get more accessibility, like getting extra vans, extra small vehicles for them to travel.
Lee Kantor: Now, where are you getting your caregivers? Is it difficult to find caregivers?
Hawa Dicko: No. My end, no. Because some of them from word of mouth and how I treat the ones that I work with, yes, so they know people that they refer to as to work with. So, for us, we don’t have issue of employees.
Lee Kantor: So, that’s great to have that ability. Now, you just have to get through this transportation challenge and then you’ll be able to serve more people.
Hawa Dicko: Correct.
Lee Kantor: So, now, you mentioned that your ideal client is a person, a senior, or somebody that has developmental issues, how do you find the clients? Do you run ads or do you have partnerships with different hospitals or assisted living? Where do you find your clients?
Hawa Dicko: Thank you so much for your question. So, with the people with developmental disabilities, we get referrals from the CCBs, those are the Community Center Boards that the state send to, and they send the referral. It’s a pool, so everybody gets to respond to it. If you are lucky, they pick you. Or when they read about you and they want to come try at your day program, then they stay.
Hawa Dicko: I do other commercials also on the side of putting it on most retail places, putting it at the churches, most community, restaurants. That’s where I commission, I advertise for the day program.
Lee Kantor: So, they’ll see something and go, “Oh, I have this need,” and then they can just contact you, and then you talk to them and see if it’s the right fit?
Hawa Dicko: Yes. We first do a meet and greet. I go see them or they come see me. And if they want to try, I give them two days to try for free. That one, we don’t charge either the state or personal. Sometime they pay out of pocket. I don’t charge them for that. Once you make a decision, you sign the contract with me or you sign a paper work with me saying you want to come, then we start the agreement and we go from there.
Lee Kantor: Now, do you find that a lot of times the individual who needs the care isn’t the one that contacts you, but maybe a family member or somebody else is contacting you on their behalf?
Hawa Dicko: Yes, they do. And sometimes that’s a challenge I have on that side too. A client, like disabled clients, they will say they like it, they want to come, but then the guardian or the caregiver or the caretaker will say, “No, I don’t want to go there.” And it’s a little bit chilling sometimes that they make the decision and they keep saying, no, we don’t want her to go or don’t want him to come. But we have some clients that they are their own guardian, that they make decision on their own. So, those people, I don’t have issue with them. They can say yes or no and we are okay with that.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. I would imagine when you’re working with a family member, it’s a lot of peace of mind knowing that someone’s in there making sure that their parent or grandparent is being taken care of properly and they’re not having to worry as much, especially with so many young people that don’t live near their parent anymore.
Hawa Dicko: Correct. It is a very delicate question you did. Sometimes they come visit them. I used to have this residential area for them. I had two houses that there’s some people that they don’t have homes, I took them there. I make them stay there so they can come to their program and go back, and we give them that care. The state was funding that one, but I discontinue using it.
Hawa Dicko: With that one, there are some family members that they will come in and say, “Hey, you didn’t wash this one. You didn’t do this one. This one didn’t stay.” Meanwhile, you have done it, but maybe the client is not maybe cooperating or accepting that task or giving you the opportunity to help that client. But then, when they come to visit, they have something to say.
Hawa Dicko: But all in all, it was a successful one. It was taking much of my time from the other side, the type of care I wanted to give, I couldn’t give at that. That’s why I said I hold on to that one, but that one is another challenge too. Family members coming in, we had a lot and most of them, I would say 100 percent, we get a good response, so it’s a good thing.
Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community and what have you gotten out of it so far?
Hawa Dicko: Oh, my God. Thank you. I was so excited, my first time, Ms. Adrienne, a lady that she worked for construction, she owned a construction company in Colorado here. And she met me, she said, “Hawa, I need to introduce you to WBEC.” And I’m like, “Okay. What is this?” I was so excited. She gave me the website to go read, I read about it. I say, “Yes. I want to join. I really want to join.” And I did send my application. It took me about three to six months, they approved me.
Hawa Dicko: And I don’t know, it’s like now I have a new family. Even if you met somebody that you don’t know, it’s like a sister or a mother or an aunt to you. They help you to grow in your business. They enlighten you. They guide you. Any question that you have, they have an answer for you. Even if they don’t know, they give you time, they’ll tell you, “Hawa, this one might have it. So, you know what? I’ll just connect you to this one and they will help you.”
Hawa Dicko: So, I’m so happy and proud. I don’t know, but I will do it and do it again. I am excited to be part of them. They are helping me. They’re teaching me. It’s very educative. I’m not that good with IT, but they’re giving me a class that I go every Wednesday and they’re teaching me. We strive. That’s the name of that program. So, I’m excited to be part of this group.
Lee Kantor: Now, what are you working on? Do you have any projects you’re working on right now?
Hawa Dicko: Yes. Thank you for that question. With Compassion Adult Daycare, I met the sisters recently, we went for our procurement conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it was a very successful one. I’m glad I went too. So, with that one, I met some coaches, some people that they talked to me, and we were thinking about how I can expand my business. So, talking like that, my next project is something that I’m about to do with my next coach, is about opening a new branch out of state. So, I picked out two states I’m working on right now. I picked out Ohio and Arizona. So, that’s my next project.
Lee Kantor: And is there any recent achievements you’d like to share?
Hawa Dicko: Oh, yes. With WBEC-West and everything, I have been able to open another medical equipment and supply, my own in Aurora here, that we sell diapers, wipes, wheelchairs, commode, shower chair, and all that. So, yes, that’s the recent achievements I have done.
Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about Compassion Adult Daycare, is there a way to contact you? Is there a website? Or is there a way to get in contact with you or somebody on your team?
Hawa Dicko: Yes, we do. You can contact us with a phone number or you can go to our website. And then, yes, we definitely respond to you.
Lee Kantor: And what is the website?
Hawa Dicko: It is www.compassionadultdaycare.com. And 720-427-8977, Compassion Adult Daycare, that is our number.
Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Hawa Dicko: Thank you so very much for having me. I really appreciate your time and inviting me here.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.
