Home visiting is a useful and cost-effective practice utilized all over the world to support parents and families in nurturing their children's growth and development by providing parenting skills, education, household economic strengthening and referrals to needed services. The 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook examines the scope of home visiting in the United States and identifies the gaps by examining and analyzing national and state-wide data.
Executive Summary
The 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook compiles key data on early childhood home visiting, a proven service delivery strategy that helps children and families thrive. Home visiting has existed in some form for more than 100 years, paving the way to a healthier, safer, and more successful future for families. It connects parents-to-be and parents of young children with a designated support person who guides them through the early stages of raising a family. For many, it is a bridge to becoming the kind of parents they want to be so they can unlock their child’s potential.
Home visiting is voluntary and tailored to meet families where they are—from a teenage single mother in Phoenix to an expectant military couple near the Smoky Mountains to a Native American woman raising a grandchild with special needs in North Dakota. Depending on the family’s circumstances, the home visitor might talk with them about their child’s developmental milestones, coach them in positive parenting, connect them with needed services, and even help them create a resume so they can find a job. Home visiting is cost effective, with demonstrated improvements in child health, well-being, and school readiness and parent self-sufficiency.
Home visiting is offered in many communities, perhaps even yours. The 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook presents, for the first time, the most comprehensive picture available of home visiting on the national and state levels. It reveals the breadth of home visiting across America but also the gaps, where families in need are going without this vital source of support. To produce the Yearbook, the National Home Visiting Resource Center examined publicly available data, collected new data, and analyzed what we found.
