Doing Heartwork -- The Story of Terrell Cannon

They call it “heartwork,” because “if you don’t do it from the heart, it makes it hard to do,” Terrell Cannon recently told a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist about the job of a direct-care worker.

Cannon was featured in a recent column called “While helping others, investing in themselves,” which examines the work of Home Care Associates, an employee-owned cooperative and affiliate of PHI located in Philadelphia.

Cannon worked her way up to director of training after a welfare caseworker referred her to HCA in 1993, when, as metro columnist Annette John-Hall writes, Cannon was “pregnant, unemployed, and angry.”

In the following clip from HeartWork, an original theater piece performed by women who work as home health aides and certified nurse aides, Cannon performs a dramatic monologue recounting her journey from a troubled youth to a rewarding career in home health care




Many thanks to PHI for this inspiring story. Read the full article here.