Joan Collins (left) enjoys the companionship and help that Naborforce worker Barb Overstreet provides. (Photo by Jay Paul)
It’s the simple things Joan Collins misses — driving, looking over the labels at grocery stores, reading her mail.
A worsening eye condition has made it impossible for the 92-year-old Richmond woman to do those tasks, chipping away at her independence. “I couldn’t do anything. I would have to have somebody to take me to the store or doctor’s appointments or anything. I do not call on my family, because they are busy also,” Collins says.
In 2021, a friend recommended Naborforce, a service that matches clients with helpers known as Nabors, who can literally be the extra set of hands or, in this case, eyes that they need.
It was a perfect fit for Collins. Four hours a week, a Nabor comes to Collins’ home to assist with tasks such as grocery shopping, driving or working around the house.
Since spring 2022, Collins’ helper has often been a fellow Richmonder, Barb Overstreet. The death of Overstreet’s husband in 2021 left a void in her life. Several months later, she became a Nabor, wanting to do something meaningful with her time but, at 76, not wanting a more structured job.
Naborforce doesn’t guarantee that a particular Nabor will be assigned to a client, but sometimes it works out that pairings become more regular. Overstreet helps Collins and a man who lives in an assisted living facility and says she gets just as much out of the weekly visits as they do. “It gives me some purpose.”
Naborforce founder and CEO Paige Wilson (Photo courtesy Naborforce)
When founder and CEO Paige Wilson envisioned Naborforce, she had clients and Nabors like Collins and Overstreet in mind — older adults in generally good health who need a helping hand to age in their homes and motivated, helpful people who may want to make a little money.
Helping someone can take the form of sorting through correspondence, changing a smoke detector, cleaning out a closet, taking items for donation, shopping for gifts or just sitting and talking. Health care assistance isn’t an option.
“The No. 1 activity or task we do is meal prep,” Wilson says. “It is not that our clients don’t have food or can’t do it, but when you are 88, it is no fun to make a healthy meal and sit and eat it by yourself. It is the community around the eating.”
Clients must be at least 18 years old. The average age is 83, and about 75% of them are women, Wilson says. Most still live in their homes, with the rest usually residing with family or in a senior living community.
Naborforce offers hourly pricing and monthly plans. Workers are vetted through an interview process and criminal and driving record background checks.
Wilson founded the company in 2018 in Richmond and now offers services in nine cities. It has taken off, she says, both because of the very real needs it is meeting and the community it is building, Wilson says. “It became really clear very early on, and then COVID just cemented this, is the real thing we are solving is connection.”
