Daytona Beach FL, A Stronger Community Starts With Supported Families

The moment you bring a baby home, the world expects you to magically “have it together” and the same thing happens when an aging parent starts needing help. We’re pushing back on that myth with Stevie Cole, co-owner of Neighbor Love Home Care in Daytona Beach, Florida, a non-medical home care company built around one big idea: support the whole household before it becomes a crisis.

We talk candidly about postpartum stigma and why so many moms feel like asking for help means they’re failing. Stevie breaks down what fourth trimester support really looks like in real life: bottle washing, caring for older kids, giving a mom permission to sleep, and offering steady emotional support that can help prevent postpartum depression and crushing loneliness. We also share a practical, surprisingly powerful concept: giving the gift of support through home care gift cards, so families can receive help without feeling like they’re “asking for extra.”

Then we shift to senior home care, including companionship, light household help, meal prep, transportation, medication reminders, and thoughtful “discharge” support after a hospital stay. The thread that ties it all together is relationship-centered, trauma-informed caregiving and a faith-guided commitment to restoring neighborliness. We also get specific about hiring: what makes a great caregiver, why character matters, and how supporting caregivers leads to better care for clients.

If you’re looking for postpartum help, senior care at home, or simply a better way to strengthen families and communities, you’ll leave with language, options, and a new lens on what “home care” can mean. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a village, and leave a review with the kind of support you wish existed in your hardest season.

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Transcript

Meet Neighbor Love Home Care

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, my name is Stevie Cole. My husband and I are owners of Neighbor Love Home Care, a new non-medical home care company located in Daytona Beach, Florida. Our services cover four counties in Florida. That's Fellucia, Flagler, Duvall, and St. John's counties. As a husband and wife team with deep roots and community social services centered on uplifting vulnerable populations, we saw a need and decided that it was time to build a company that focused on holistic whole family care. Harry also has an 83-year-old aunt that we provide care for, and that experience reinforced our desire to provide in-home services as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Great. And how about your background? Can you talk to us a little bit about that? Because that's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

My background is in social work. I've been a social child and family social worker for a couple of decades now. And that has also was one of the reasons that we decided to go in the helping business in terms of providing support in home. I've worked with several different populations, including supporting seniors, supporting children, also postpartum moms, and just a whole an array of services to families, also veterans as well.

Postpartum Help Without The Stigma

SPEAKER_00 1:49

It's kind honestly, we're still educating the community about the importance or the need. A lot of moms, a lot of they think that they are failing. They are so asking for help is something, is it's it's a stigma. They feel like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

You should be just know how to do this.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You should know how to do this. And so it is, it's, but what we notice though is that's where we get most of our questions that people are interested in it. They just haven't a lot of, they haven't made their steps. And so we're spending a lot of time really educating the doctor's office and the pediatrician or the OBGYN and the churches with young families and that kind of stuff. One of the things that we just created is a gift card so that for instead of getting that, I know they need the baby supplies too, but you can also give them the gift of support. So at baby showers, that kind of stuff. So we've come up with that to help offset some of the costs and not make them feel like they're asking for this additional support, whether it's a child's birthday, whether it's just whatever, but these gift cards can be used like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Just having somebody, especially if you do have other kids, and that's yeah, you just need maybe you don't need help with the baby as much as you need help getting these other kids taken care of for the day. And it doesn't matter as long as your caregivers don't care which way they're going. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, yeah, that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think. See, I'm a totally weird situation because I had three at one time, so we had an insane amount of support hitting us because we had three at one time. We paid in a NICU nurse, cash under the table, come in and spend one night a week at our house and let us just sleep from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Like she did a night shift for us. Yes, because otherwise it's me and him taking shifts. And yeah, so we we paid for that once a week, and that was the I could have used more, but that was the the breath that I needed. I needed that sleep one night and that was just heavenly.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yes, yes, I can imagine, and that's where a lot of moms, and it is not you may not need a whole what we call our fourth trimester support where we're in there, you know, multiple times a week. It just may be that enough just to get you to get your second win for the week, just like what you described. And even with that, there is because you have other people coming in the home sometimes. You might they might have a what they call visiting nurses. There are a lot of different programs out there now where they are having other people come in the home, but they're coming in there for a specific task. They're coming and it's short. And they are coming in there for the baby more so than the but mom is the one who needs that real, that, that extra cushion of support. Most of what our caregivers we provide is an emotional support too, because sometimes moms, especially what we want to do is prevent postpartum depression. We want to prevent those things. And so having somebody there, even if it's just to talk to, they may not be able to say to their mother-in-law, to their mom, who's was great at parenting, they're struggling on their half. But if they have that person in there who might just be washing bottles or whatever, and then you see them over there and they're crying or tearing up, who can stop what they're doing and going to them and provide that emotional support and then just that encouragement or what do you need right now? Thing. I just need to sleep. Okay, I got the baby, you go, that kind of stuff. Without the judgment, without the all the stories about how they did it and what they did. We all know that as moms, we love to give other moms advice. And it's great, but when a mom is really going through in terms of during that postpartum period, especially if she has those other children, that can be that's not what they need. And so even if it's I got the toddler, I'll play just whatever the mom needs where she is, and we meet them right where they are, and then make sure that we leave them strengthened in everywhere. And then also we help with providing any wraparound services. So if we feel that they may need additional support, we provide a whole lot like a resource for them, resource list. Here are some of the other agencies that might be able to provide you. Here's Postpartum Support International's line where you can call them and talk to someone for free and get some support. And so we our goal is to get in there and leave them strengthened and encouraged and hopeful. And really, we want to restore them back. And for in fact, we want to prevent any crisis from happening.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Oh, yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

There's statistics out there that even says, I want to say it's around like 57%, probably more than that, of moms don't even make it to their follow-up appointment sometimes because they're all over the place. They miss it, they reschedule this kind of stuff. And so by the time they get in there, they're supposed to be there. They'll usually get the two-week one, some, but then it's like the rest of them, the subsequent ones. And so we we want to be there. It gets harder and harder, especially when you have the little ones as well. And we're there for it all. We're there for.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah. I honestly I think that in if we rewind about 30 years, 40 years, we were way more into intergenerational families, all living together. So there was always somebody to help, or a mom or a sister, or somebody else in the house that could be.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

The village was there.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And as we become more separated and are not as intergenerational as we used to be in our own homes, that support has, unless your mom is can come and stay, like mine far away. So she did come and stay for about six weeks, but it was hard on her. And we were fine with it, but she couldn't take the night shift. She's, you know, not gonna take the night shift. So so there's still and still a need. I can also just in terms of needing help, I can remember also, it's not just when the child is just born, but as a um, I don't know, I've seen some oh videos of sleep specialists coming into the house. And I don't think you have to be a sleep specialist necessarily, but you have to be able to step away and let that baby teach themselves how to fall asleep for your own sanity.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

And I can remember standing, I had three babies upstairs, and I'm standing there doing the dishes, and I thought, just give it 10 minutes, just give them 10 minutes because we had been just playing this game of rocking them to sleep. Yeah, gently, but it was driving us crazy. And I knew they had to be able to do that themselves. So I just everybody was gone out of the house but me. And I just stood there and did the dishes, just going, please stop crying, please stop crying, please stop crying. And five minutes is a long time. Oh sure enough, by the time when you're listening to your own babies cry, and by the time I got done loading that dishwasher, there was silence on that baby. I just needed to know, I needed if someone else would have said to me, it's gonna be okay, give it five more minutes, just give it five minutes. They're not gonna, they're okay, they're safe. And I didn't have something like that. So just having a supportive companion or someone in the house to reassure who I'm sure that your caregivers who do this are also moms. And just to have somebody reassure you that they're safe and it's okay to let them cry for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

It's so hard. That's that it's very hard. And a lot of times that's what feeds into moms thinking they're not doing good as a mom. I'm not a good mom because they feel like I'm hearing my baby cry and I don't, but like you said, just having that encouragement. And we train our caregivers to see beyond that. We teach them that the relationships come beforehand, that connection. And so connecting with that mom right there is entering, first of all, don't just, we're not simply entering their home, but it's sacred space and just leaning into again where they are, where they're coming from in terms of what they've they've had to deal with beforehand. Some moms may have in terms of C-sections that they're yeah, recovering from as well, or really traumatic birth experience. We train our caregivers, they're trauma-informed because everybody carries a story. And so if they had some kind of trauma in the past, let's just say from their upbringing, hearing their baby cry triggers can trigger that. And again, they're trained, our caregivers are even as a social worker. That's one of my that was one of my biggest things just I spent my time understanding that people, even if they live with other people, there's that isolation that kicks in and stuff, and it just makes it their emotional health, their family relationships, physical well, all that ties into another. And so we're just intentional. Our caregivers are intentional about understanding all those levels and stuff. Relationship centered, that kind of stuff. Loneliness is a big issue in postpartum, too. You know, it is a big issue, even though they got the babies around them, kids other children around them, even sometimes support it loneliness affects new moms.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Sure does, absolutely. You feel like you're the you're the one, you're it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah.

unknown 11:30

Yeah.

Senior Care For Autonomy

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about senior care then. You so you also have caregivers who are trained and helpful with senior care issues. And most home care agencies, that's what they lead with is the senior care, but you're talking about a whole family sort of ecosystem of not just new moms, not just seniors, but everybody in between and being helpful there, which you don't hear a lot from non-medical home care agencies. And that's wonderful. So tell us a little bit about the other parts of what you guys do.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

In terms of senior care, because we we started there, we knew we wanted to build this also for the pregnant postpartum population, but definitely with the senior home care. We provide the companionship care, lighthouse, whole health, meal preparation, also errands and transportation. We also do medication reminders. We all non-medical, so that means that we do not. The things that we do are basically helping to again strengthen them, whether it's it was a hospital state or whether, and we call we got what we call a discharge packet. And so we help get them settled back in and provide any needed services that they need to really again to become strong, again, independent, or I like to say autonomy more so than independent, because I think we all still need one another in terms of help. We also provide just the community connection, again, going back to that loneliness, that isolation, helping them to get involved if they're not going to the senior centers, the activities and stuff like that. So we're really big on getting them connected to the community because again, we're not just in there to check off a checklist, we're in there to strengthen the individual or the family and our seniors. What we've been finding with our seniors is just amazing. A lot of them are already connected, a lot of them are connected with the community, the counselor aging, that type of thing, those type of services. And sometimes they just need a little piece of our services. We're in where our company, they ask, what is the minimum hours or whatever? They love that we will come in the mornings and help them do stuff and come back in the evening, help them do stuff. And and again, just to make sure they're strengthened. Yeah, our the home care side of it, like I said, is one strategy we use for strengthening homes, families, and stuff. But it is definitely one that is our main thing right now because those are where our clientele are.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Well, that's great. Yeah, and that is the fact that you're able to help folks in the home from one end of life to another, that's pretty outstanding. And that's a lot of that's a lot of training, a lot of years of experience. So that's great.

Faith Guided Mission And Neighborliness

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Tell me more about your mission mission and vision and your faith-based organization. Tell us more about how that comes into play.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Okay, we're we are faith guided because we believe scripture gives us a beautiful picture of what genuine care looks like. And throughout the Bible, we're called to carry one another's burdens, encourage one another, and build each other up, and even care for widows and families and neighbors in tangible ways. And that's not just an inspiration for us, it's really our operating model. What also is helps us to operate is not waiting for families to reach crisis. We really are focused on strengthening households before they fall apart. Let's say a daughter caring for their dad who needs a break before she gets exhausted. That's what we measure success as. If a new mom receives support before postpartum depression, that's again how we measure success. That's why our mission isn't just home care. We started off with it being we will provide this type of home care. Now it's strengthening household, and it's about building a stronger household, stronger families, and ultimately stronger communities. We believe that healthy communities are built on stronger families and strengthened household. It's not simply about providing service. We're actually our goal is to restore one of the things our culture has been losing for generations, and that's neighborliness. The kind where people know they're not alone, where practical help and meaningful connection go hand in hand, and the kind where love shows up and rolls up the sleeve and stays a while. That's neighbor love.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

That's the best kind of love. And best of home care service in community service is really just being able to. I love it when people come together and a bunch of people roll up their sleeves and get to work, whether it's cleaning a house or it's doing some dishes or just a load of laundry or just preparing some meals. Those kinds of things are so helpful. And it's it just makes your heart so happy to see someone get that kind of assistance when they really need it.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's why we yeah, we decide to come along just other community agencies to really work with again providing individuals and families the services that will help them really thrive. That's excellent.

What Makes A Great Caregiver

SPEAKER_01 16:47

One of the other questions that I have for you, and I ask this of everybody, is when it comes to caregivers, what are you looking for in a really good caregiver?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah, that's a great question. And actually, it's one of the things that that we really are careful about our selection of caregivers. We're looking for caregivers who have integrity. We're looking for caregivers who are people of character, kind, patient, gentle, really people who feel like home care is a calling, more so than just a job. While at this level of services that we provide, we do like to see caregivers with experience, but what we say is heart matters most. We can train and we are really deliberate about our training. We put them through, and these are our employees, they're not contractors, they actually are W-2 employees. So we spend a lot of upfront time pouring into them and training them. And we actually support them just as much as we support our clients. We feel that if we have well-supported caregivers, they're going to support our client clientele very well. Yeah, the ones really that that's what we look for in caregivers.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I and I say this and it's become cliche in my head for me to say this, but it's true that you cannot teach someone how to be a compassionate caregiver. It has to be a calling. You can teach them any skill, but you cannot teach somebody how to have a heart. And so I totally agree with you. Looking for those caregivers where this is a calling for them and they really enjoy making someone else's day better, then that's that's 90% of it.

Workshops And Navigating Support Systems

SPEAKER_00 18:35

So we partner with churches, healthcare providers, employers, and even nonprofits. We're also looking to link up with schools and community organizations just to build that network of support around people, around individuals and family, rather than expecting them to navigate to find the help for them. Education is a huge, important part of our mission. We provide workshops, caregiver training, also speaking engagements and practical resources, just because we want to be able to equip families before they're overwhelmed, like I stated before, not just respond after crisis. And so going into churches to speak, I actually have one coming up early next month. I'm excited about it's actually a church that has a service on Tuesday for the senior, their senior population. So it's about 100 to 150 of them. So I'm gonna be doing that, and I'm so excited. But again, that's where they are, and we are really educating them. And then if they happen to want to connect for services, that's great. But we want them to leave from these workshops and these trainings, being having the knowledge that, you know, for whatever areas that they needed, and whether it's preventing elder fraud, preventing anything like that. We're excited about that piece. That's a growing piece for us. And again, we are more passionate about educating them, getting that information. And if they choose to go to get home care service, knowing how and to find the best home care service agency for them, that's all the strengthening the communities and doing all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

That's great. There's never can be enough education for families. We just don't hear enough about what supports available. I think people would be surprised at how much there is available, but it's also a matter of navigating the paperwork and who qualifies for what. So I'm sure that having these talks is a really nice step forward for that church, that community, and having their seniors or maybe their pregnant moms be able to know that there's someone out there who they can talk to or get services from. So that's great. I'm glad you're doing that.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Absolutely, absolutely. It's very helpful with my background as well as a social worker and having to navigate the healthcare system for a while. And so I find we find ourselves with the seniors now um adding, give giving them that um added value of you know, helping them to navigate their their health insurance. Even though we're a private paid company, we still they're still dealing with health care um or health insurance issues. And we, you know, even provide so we educate on that as well in the homes when we're there, and even in these workshops in terms of how to best navigate this this monster of the case. Oh, and it is a monster.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

So it's easy.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

It really is. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

So it's yeah, it's a lot. And you never get quite enough information if you I mean, uh, just it's it's a lot. So so that's great. I'm glad you guys are willing to do that too. You're a great

Final Reflections And Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 21:40

representation of your your vision for this business. So you're you're doing great.