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While significant research has come forward to improve our collective understanding of human services programs and their contribution to the economic and social well-being of individuals and families, notable knowledge gaps continue to persist regarding how these programs can best serve the needs and interests of rural communities.
Home visiting services are inherently in-person, built on the concept that visiting families in their homes provides unique opportunities to support caregivers and children. However, some eligible families may not receive the benefits of evidence-based home visiting programs due to a variety of barriers, including scheduling, geographic distance, and family disengagement. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, some home visiting models and programs were using virtual methods to help connect and work with families. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of home visiting programs needed to make an abrupt shift to delivering services virtually, rather than in person.
Early childhood home visiting is a service delivery strategy that supports a range of positive outcomes, including improved child and maternal health, children’s development and school readiness, family economic self-sufficiency, and the reduction of child abuse and neglect. Evidence-based home visiting programs reached about 278,000 families in 2021, according to the National Home Visiting Resource Center, but many more families are eligible and could benefit from these programs. This literature synthesis aims to deepen understanding of the facilitators of and barriers to family engagement in home visiting, the strategies programs use to support engagement, and topics that would benefit from further research.
This brief introduces five categories of key elements associated with reflective supervision. It then presents a tool to help supervisors plan, conduct, and reflect on sessions with a focus on those elements.
This report summarizes what is known about early childhood home visitor professional well-being - including gaps, measures, and strategies - and introduces a conceptual model to guide future work.