HHS Awards First Round of Home Visiting Grants

The Department of Health and Human Services announced $224 million in grants to states providing evidence-based, voluntary home visiting programs. As we have discussed, this is an important opportunity for states and local jurisdictions to improve outcomes for children and families. Research has shown that high-quality home visiting programs – through which at-risk families can choose to receive home visits from trained professionals like nurses and social workers – can make a positive difference for children and families.

These first round of grants are authorized by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program, enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The MIECHV program will provide $1.5 billion over five years for evidence-based home visiting. According to HHS, forty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and five territories will receive formula grants to build out their home visiting efforts and provide services to at-risk children and families. In addition, nine states successfully competed to receive $66 million to expand and enhance implementation of evidence-based home visiting programs, and 13 states won $34 million to further develop their programs. Together, these programs will serve an estimated 27,700 families next year. To learn more about the MIECHV program, please visit mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/homevisiting/.

Zero to the Three recently released a tool for communities interested in creating home visiting programs.

More information and research on home visiting programs can also be found on the Child Welfare Information Gateway's Home Visiting page.

For the of grantees, visit HRSA here.

For more information on Opportunities for Communities in the Affordable Care Act.