It was about six years ago when Stephen Bleeker’s father Hans had a stroke while vacationing in Florida – a traumatic event that ended up being a lightbulb moment for Bleeker.
“Our family was thrown into that world of caring for a parent,” Bleeker explains.
“We were fortunate enough to be able to help him out as (children) – but it made me think that if we weren’t able to do that, who would we trust and go to for help?”
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For Ginger Bertrand, some of her earliest childhood memories in Ottawa are centred around healthcare. “I grew up across the street from what was originally the General Hospital,” she explains,
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Zaahra Mehsen was three years into a biology degree at a local university when she realized she wanted to take a different path. “I realized that it’s not my thing,”
Realizing many other people didn’t have that kind of family support, Bleeker started Assurance Home Care in 2015 and was joined by business partner Kristine McGinn two years later.
Assurance Home Care
The Ottawa-based firm provides services such as home care, housekeeping and meal preparation for seniors and others needing support at home. It now has customers in Toronto as well as the Ottawa region, and many of its services are partly covered by private insurance companies.
“I was looking to start a business that had a social component,” explains Bleeker, a longtime entrepreneur who’s probably best known as the former co-owner of CD Warehouse.
Bleeker says he quickly realized the business was desperately needed.
The company currently has 150 caregivers on staff and a dozen people in its management and office staff. Next month, Assurance will be expanding into the Niagara and St. Catharines regions in southern Ontario.
The company’s long-term goal is to be the most trusted name in home care in Canada – so expect to hear about it a lot more, Bleeker says.
