What is the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV)?
A program designed to improve outcomes for at-risk children and families through evidence-based home visiting programs. MIECHV coordinates work at the federal, state and local levels. The program was established in 2010 and is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). MIECHV grants are made to states and tribal communities to “deliver effective evidence-based early childhood home visiting programs to pregnant women, expectant fathers, and parents and primary caregivers of young children birth to kindergarten entry in communities identified through statewide needs assessments as being at risk.
How is the Funding Used?
- States and tribal communities develop unique plans to target funding to particular communities identified through needs assessments.
- Each state or tribal community can opt to use one or more evidence-based home visiting models [identified through the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE)] to serve families in those communities. One of those models is the Early Head Start Home Visiting Model, based on the Early Head Start home-based option.
How Will MIECHV Impact My Early Head Start Program?
Most of the local programs using the Early Head Start Home Visiting Model under MIECHV are adding home-based slots to existing Head Start or Early Head Start programs to expand services to communities most at-risk. Those programs have already been identified and notified.
Implementation across states and tribal communities will vary. However, anticipated benefits to all existing Early Head Start and Head Start home-based programs may include:
- Coordinated statewide home visiting needs assessments
- Potential for enhanced role of Head Start State Collaboration Offices in coordinating statewide home visiting services
- Additional training materials and resources for home visiting programs and staff
- Increased capacity for comprehensive statewide early childhood systems (workforce development, referral networks, etc.)
- Access to in-depth evaluation information on the Early Head Start Home Visiting Model
The Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Lancaster County’s Parents as Teachers is joining the Home Visiting Coalition on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 for a day of action to urge Congress to include MIECHV in the next COVID-19 emergency package. Even if you’ve sent an email before, please help us remind them to include MIECHV. You can use any of the 3 options below.
What Can Congress Do?
While the program’s ability to impact maternal and child health outcomes is clear, years of level funding limit its reach to vulnerable families. Of the 18 million current and expectant parents who could benefit from MIECHV, only 150,000 currently benefit from the program. To bring the power of home visiting to more families and promote improved maternal health outcomes, we need Congress to invest more in MIECHV.
The Home Visiting to Reduce Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Act (H.R. 4768)
The Home Visiting Coalition supports doubling current annual MIECHV funding to a total of $800 million to reach more families and help contribute to a comprehensive response to the maternal morbidity and mortality crisis. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation (H.R. 3) containing a bill that would double MIECHV funding over two years, the Home Visiting to Reduce Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Act (H.R. 4768). The Home Visiting Coalition urges the Senate to support a companion bill so that Congress can advance this critical policy without delay.
Click here to see a national sign-on letter supporting H.R. 4768
Click here to see a state and local sign-on letter supporting H.R. 4768
About the Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Lancaster County’s Parents as Teachers
Parents as Teachers (PAT) is an evidence-based home visiting model that promotes the optimal early learning and health of children by supporting and engaging parents and caregivers. The program provides services to families with children from prenatal through kindergarten entry. Families receive personal home visits, child screenings, group connections, parenting workshops and referrals to community resources. This program is free and accepting new families in Lancaster County with children prenatal to three years old. For more information visit:
CAPLanc.org/PAT
In Crisis
