Membership Benefits

Your membership helps us to secure increased funding annually for the implementation of the Lifespan Respite Care Program and other programs that support family caregivers and those they care for; enables our work with federal agencies to ensure successful state implementation; and helps us advocate to grow and improve the quality of these support programs as the need expands.

Dementia and Occupational Therapy - Home caregiver and senior adult woman
  • Members receive timely legislative alerts and announcements of crucial private and public funding opportunities.
  • We will continue to make available the publications and other products, such as respite start up manuals, funding guides, and coalition building materials developed by ARCH over the years, as well as many new and updated materials. Many of these products are provided at no cost, but ARCH members receive a 10% discount when purchasing some of the materials that incur a fee.
  • You will also receive a discount on your national conference registration.
  • We will continue to maintain the ARCH Respite Locator Service at no charge to family caregivers, providers and other users.
  • We will assist states in building and strengthening state respite coalitions.
  • We will continue to give you a significant voice in Washington, DC, on critical respite and crisis care legislation important to family caregivers, including the Lifespan Respite Care program, Medicaid and the Older Americans Act.

Membership Levels

  • Professional membership at $75 per year is appropriate for those working in the field.
  • Family membership ($25)  is for those family members who are caring for a loved one at home.
  • Students may join for $25 per year.
  • Memberships for organizations, coalitions and companies are also available.
    • Level 1 ($125) allows two individuals from the organization to become members.
    • Level 2 ($200) allows three individuals to become members
    • Level 3 ($325) allows a total of five individuals from the organization to become members.

Membership is Tax Deductible

Because the ARCH parent organization, Families and Communities Rising is a 501(c)(3) organization, your contribution or membership donation in any amount is considered by the IRS to be tax deductible.

If you are not able to become a member at this time, please consider making a donation at a level you feel comfortable with.

What does ARCH do?

The ARCH National Respite Network is the only national support and advocacy organization dedicated solely to promoting the development of quality respite programs.

Helps Family Caregivers:

The National Respite Locator Service helps family caregivers find respite programs in their communities.  ARCH also connects caregivers to their State Respite Coalition for assistance, answers questions on how to get paid as a family caregiver, and offers caregiver resources to help them better understand what respite is, how to use, find it and pay for it.  

Provides Training and Technical Assistance:

The Training and Technical Assistance Division provides support to State Respite Coalitions, service providers and families through consultation, training, evaluation, and research. The Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center (TARC), funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living, supports State Lifespan Respite grantees and their partners in developing statewide respite systems and in serving caregivers of persons of all ages and conditions.

ARCH provides training through webinars, podcasts, learning collaboratives, State Lifespan Respite Summits, an annual National Lifespan Respite Conference and a Lifespan Respite Grantee and Partner Learning Symposium. Technical assistance is provided through email and phone consultation and through the development of timely products including fact sheets, reports, manuals and guidebooks and monthly newsletters.

Advocates for Respite through Public Policy:

The National Respite Coalition helps states and local communities to understand policy, educate policy makers, and build strong advocacy coalitions. It provides information and teaching tools to respite advocates throughout the country. The National Respite Coalition has convened a group of national and state organizations, the Lifespan Respite Task Force, dedicated to the support of federal lifespan respite legislation. The NRC is completely dependent on Membership fees and private donations.

Advances Innovative and Exemplary Respite Services:

ARCH seeks out and identifies Innovative and Exemplary respite service models worthy of recognition, helps promote them, advances opportunities for replication, and maintains a searchable online data base of innovative and exemplary respite services across the country. 

Promotes Research to Develop an Evidence-base for Respite:

In 2013, ARCH convened the first Expert Panel on Respite Research with support from the Administration for Community Living. The distinguished panel released its final report, A Research Agenda for Respite Care: Deliberations of an Expert Panel of Researchers, Advocates and Funders, that includes recommendations for increasing and improving research focused on family caregiver, care recipient, family and societal outcomes that result from respite. ARCH is advancing this agenda through a recently formed Respite Research Consortium and the prestigious Committee for Advancement of Respite Research.

Works to Build the Respite Provider Workforce:

ARCH and the National Academy for State Health Policy, in collaboration with the Respite Care Association of Wisconsin, piloted a National Respite Provider Recruitment, Training and Retention initiative.  The National Respite Care Provider Training Toolkit, that includes a competency-based training curriculum, is available to help state and local agencies, organizations and programs recruit and train entry-level respite providers. 

Leads on Respite Evaluation and Performance Measurement:

Both planned and crisis respite programs must be able to clearly and compellingly demonstrate that their efforts are achieving worthy outcomes related to the improvement of quality of life, and outcomes related to saving tax-payer dollars on more costly interventions such as foster care, nursing homes, or other institutional care. Respite programs across the United States field-tested tools for measuring program outcomes and are available to the public in the ARCH guide, Evaluating and Reporting Outcomes: a Guide for Respite and Crisis Care Program Managers. 

In addition, the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center has developed a Performance Measurement Guide for Lifespan Respite grantees and partners, but it may be helpful to all who provide respite.