Care Counts
[Documentary, 2023]
In collaboration with Teach For America, Whirlpool has been donating washers, dryers and laundry supplies to schools across America since 2015. We were surprised to discover, in sitting down with younger groups of people, that such a small percentage were aware of the Care Counts Laundry Program. When hearing the statistics the program works to reverse, as shown below, people were excited to learn more yet skeptical of the motive. We left our research optimistic, understanding that awareness of the cause paired with an authentic storytelling device, the program still had an opportunity to gain needed support from America. We realized it was time for the impact to speak for itself.

Entering year eight of the program, we had the opportunity to listen to the voices of the program. We spoke with students, educators and other program participants to understand how the program’s intent is coming to fruition nationwide. From those conversations we created a short documentary and two spots based around the key themes from our conversations.

With over 10,000 loads of laundry washed and 50,000 students given laundry access, the Care Counts Laundry Program continues to expand to get even more kids access to clean clothes.
  • 80% of high-risk students who participated increased their attendance by an average of 16 days.
  • Over 60% of participating high-risk students were no longer at risk for chronic absenteeism at the end of the 2022–2023 academic year.
  • 78% of high-risk students participating in their second year in the program were reported to be no longer chronically absent.