Building Partnerships to Support Family Caregivers

Q&A with Jenevieve Rodriguez Liu, MPH, Community Engagement & Communications Coordinator

As FCA’s Community Engagement & Communications Coordinator, Jenevieve Rodriguez Liu, MPH, works to build partnerships with organizations across the Bay Area that serve older adults and family caregivers. We sat down with Jenevieve to talk about how she got into supporting caregivers, how she builds trust across diverse communities and what she wishes more providers knew about supporting family caregivers.

How did you find your way to FCA?

I joined FCA in October 2025. Previously, I was with Alzheimer’s Los Angeles as Manager of Outreach and Engagement, doing very similar work in LA County. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, so when I saw this role at FCA, it felt like coming home to do work I’m passionate about.

What drew you to this work in the first place?

My parents cared for their parents while raising me and my brother and working full-time jobs. My dad was a mailman and my mom worked at Safeway, so they always had their hands full. My mom would tell me about holding my grandmother’s hand to take her to a doctor’s appointment, while towing my brother and me along, making sure none of us fell while crossing the street. Looking back now, the respect I have for my parents’ hard work is what drew me to supporting caregivers.

You’ve shared that you’re half Mexican and half Chinese. How does that inform your approach to community engagement?

In both my cultures, “caregiver” is not a word we use when we take care of our families. We consider it our responsibility; payment for our parents for all the years they took care of us. So that’s challenging, because people do the work but don’t consider it special in any way. If they don’t identify as caregivers, they don’t seek services.

We’re still exploring better ways to reach these communities. We have one flyer that lays out tasks; “If you’re doing all of this, you’re a caregiver.” It helps people realize how much work they’re doing — work that in their head is just part of being a son or daughter or spouse. It opens the door to help them be more willing to seek help.

How do you build trust with communities you’re not familiar with?

By being a listener. I show up, I’m open to learn about their experiences, and I acknowledge, “I don’t know everything about your community. I’m here to respectfully engage.”

I learned this in my previous work with youth experiencing homelessness. I’d find out who the champions were in the community and the people bringing everyone together. Then I went to their events and helped out every week. They started wanting to learn about our services, because I kept showing up for them. It’s about engaging thoughtfully, not just coming to one event, pitching your services, and never showing up again.

There may also be language barriers. People aren’t always going to seek services because of that. Close-knit communities tend to stay within themselves, which makes it hard for outside agencies to build trust and relationships. At FCA, four of our family consultants are multilingual and ready to help in Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin and Cantonese.

What’s a key benefit of partnering with FCA when it comes to supporting family caregivers?
At Alzheimer’s Los Angeles, I saw how caregivers are often missing in the medical equation. We concentrate on the person who needs care, but we need to remember that when they go home, there’s someone there caring for them 24/7 — and they’re typically forgotten. That’s a big part of what we do at FCA: making sure caregivers know they’re not alone and that there are resources designed specifically for them.

What’s incredible is learning how many people are in a caregiving role. They’re everywhere. Some are just starting to notice cognitive issues in their loved one, and others are in later stages. And then there are people who say, “I could have used your services two years ago. I wish I knew about you because I was struggling.” It reminds me why outreach matters, why we need to find people before times of crisis.

What do you want potential partners to know about working with FCA?

We offer a lot of wonderful free services that can support the work you do: direct care consultation with our family consultants, one-on-one support, respite grants or funds on a case-by-case basis, legal counseling and educational resources. We’re here, and we serve the Bay Area.

There’s no wrong door to partner with us. People are always free to reach out to me at jrodriguez@caregiver.org or call our info line. It will get directed to the right person. And we have a referral tool that makes it easy for providers to connect families to our services.