Home Visiting: Investing from the Start

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Home Visiting Investing from the Start
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Change the first five years and you change
everything.

• Laurel Aparicio, MPA
• Home Visiting Program Specialist
• Laurel.aparicio_at_vdh.virginia.gov

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WhAT IS home visiting?

• Voluntary home visiting matches parents with
  trained professionals to provide information and
  support during pregnancy and throughout their
  childs first five yearsa critical developmental
  period.
• Properly designed and delivered home visiting
  programs improve short and long term child and
  family outcomes.

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Home Visiting Consortium (HVC)

• A collaboration of statewide early childhood home
  visiting programs that serve families of children
  from pregnancy through age 5.
• Consortium membership includes state coordinators
  of each home visiting model and other state level
  early childhood leaders.

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Home Visiting in Virginia

• CHIP of Virginia
• Early Head Start
• Healthy Families VA
• Healthy Start/Loving Steps
• Nurse Family Partnership
• Parents as Teachers (PAT)
• Project Link
• Resource Mothers

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VA Home Visiting at a Glance
Home Visiting Program Target Population
CHIP of Virginia Prenatalage 6 Low-income
Healthy Families VA Prenatalage 5 At-risk
Healthy Start/Loving Steps Prenatal1 year At-risk
Early Head Start/Head Start Prenatal-5 years Low-income
Nurse-Family Partnership Prenatal2 years First time parents
Parents as Teachers Prenatal5 years
Project Link Pregnant and parenting substance using women
Resource Mothers Prenatal1 year Teen parents
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Program characteristics

• Voluntary
• Free
• Long term and intensive service delivery
• Based on Best practice
• Program Specific Curriculum
• Extensive Professional Development/Training
• Community based
• Data driven

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Common Goals

• Family Functioning
• Maternal and Child Health
• Child Development and School Readiness
• Parent-Child Relationship

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Types of Services

• Screening, Assessment and Planning
• child development
• maternal and child health
• perinatal depression
• intimate partner violence
• Referral to community resources
• Parent Education and Support
• teach
• mentor
• coach

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Knowledge doesnt change behavior
Its all about relationships
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What makes it work?

• Home Visitors
• Offered encouragement and hope
• Are caring and committed to their job
• Had good teaching skills
• Provided resources to meet family needs

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Value of Early Childhood Home Visiting

• Improve parenting skills and the quality of the
  home environment
• Improve child behavior problems
• Improve intellectual development
• Enhance maternal life course (employment,
  postpartum depression)
• Reduce unintentional injuries
• Increase rates and duration of breastfeeding
• --- AAP Policy Statement,
  February 2, 2009

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Home Visiting at a Glance

• Over 13,000 Virginia families are currently
  receiving home visiting services. 
• Based on poverty data, more than 100,000 Virginia
  families could benefit from early childhood home
  visiting.

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Home Visiting at a Glance
Home visiting services are available in many
communities, but the majority (80 of existing
programs) are meeting less than 25 of need in
those communities
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Referrals and accesswww.homevisitingva.com
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Home Visiting Program Directory
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Centralized Intake

• Roanoke Valley
• Virginia Peninsula
• New River Valley
• Chesapeake Area

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Questions?