FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Contact: Kenneth J. Wolfe
(202) 401-9215
ACF and HRSA award $1.3 million for the Tribal Maternal, Infant and
Early Childhood Home Visiting Program
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced today the award of five single source grants totaling $1.3 million for the Tribal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program.
“The Tribal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program offers an array of services geared towards strengthening and improving the lives of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families,” said George Sheldon, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. “Whether it’s linking families to resources that provide parenting, health or social support, these grant awards will serve as the basis in making sure the Native community lives a healthy, happy, and successful quality of life.”
These Tribal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant awards will support five-year comprehensive cooperative agreements to conduct community needs assessments; planning for an implementation of high-quality, culturally relevant, evidence-based and promising home visiting programs in at-risk Tribal communities for pregnant women and families with young children aged birth to kindergarten entry; and participate in rigorous research and evaluation activities to build the knowledge base on home visiting among American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
“This program will address the needs of our most vulnerable American Indian and Alaska Native communities,” said Joan Lombardi, deputy assistant secretary and inter-departmental liaison for early childhood development. “We will continue our efforts in supporting and improving the quality of programs that ultimately improve outcomes for families in the Tribal communities.”
Home visiting services provided under this grant will enable grantees to utilize what is known about effective home visiting services. The home visitation program will provide Native populations with evidence-based programs to deliver services that promote outcomes such as:
- Improvements in maternal and prenatal health, infant health and child health and development
- Reduced child maltreatment
- Improved parenting practices related to child development outcomes
- Improved school readiness
- Improved family socio-economic status
- Improved coordination of referrals to community resources and supports
- Reduced incidence of injuries, crime and domestic violence
“Coordination of home visiting programs with a broad range of health and social services is critical to ensuring that all families receive comprehensive and high-quality care,” said HRSA Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, Ph.D, R.N. “It is our vision that there will be positive changes in maternal and child health outcomes as the states and tribes implement evidence-based home visiting programs, within a high-quality early childhood system.”
The grantee award recipients include:
- Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee, NC – Will provide home visiting services to children under the age five and their families on the Qualla Boundary.
- Native American Healthy Center, Inc., Oakland, CA – An Urban Indian Organization that will provide home visiting services to the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) population in a five-county region in Northern California, which includes Oakland and San Francisco.
- Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc., Banning, CA – A tribally controlled health care organization that will provide home visiting services to families on 10 tribal reservations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
- Taos Pueblo, Taos, NM – Will provide home visiting services for families in order to complete the continuum of services for children, aged birth to age five, and their families.
- United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, Seattle, WA – An Urban Indian Organization that will provide home visiting services to the AIAN population in King County, WA, which represents more than 100 different Tribal entities.
For more information on the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program please contact tribal.homevisiting@hhs.gov.
To learn more about the value of home visiting programs, you may be interested in Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness http://homvee.acf.hhs.gov.
More information about the HRSA Home Visiting program is available at: http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/homevisiting/.
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Note: All ACF news releases, fact sheets and other materials are available at: www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/index.html.