In the last four years Wisconsin has made great strides to build and expand an evidence-based home visiting system. Recent action in Washington bodes well for continuing sustainable funding as Congress extended the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program into 2015.
Breakthrough in 2011
Support in Washington is good news for Wisconsin, because our state has been remarkably successful in drawing down federal home visiting funding. Wisconsin has had a history of funding home visiting programs across the state under the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (POCAN) program, providing grants across the state from 1998 through 2010. As of 2012, the POCAN budget was small ($985,700), but it helped define effective practices and build a beginning data system. Other home visiting programs were operating at this time as well, particularly in Milwaukee. But when significant new federal home visiting funding became available in 2011, Wisconsin used its experience to successfully apply, securing both home visiting formula funds and competitive funding. Wisconsin merged federal and state funding into a new program, the Family Foundations Home Visiting Program, guided by federal evidence-based requirements. The program initially funded 11 home visiting projects across the state.
Further Expansion in 2013
Late in 2013 the program was further enhanced when Wisconsin was awarded an additional $15.5 million in grants to strengthen the state’s home visiting efforts. The largest award was an expansion grant that provided $6.7 million in year one and $7.2 million in year two. That grant, from the Department of Health and Human Services, was funded through the Affordable Care Act.
Once again Wisconsin was successful in drawing down federal home visiting funding in a competitive grant process, one of only 13 states selected. In addition, Wisconsin continued to receive a $1.6 million “formula” grant to support its ongoing home visiting efforts. The grants are helping to continue and strengthen 14 existing home visiting projects (at 25 locations) and to expand the initiative into three new high-risk communities.
Family Foundation Home Visiting Components
The federal program provides grants to states to fund voluntary home visits to vulnerable families. Families receive support, referrals to community resources, and parenting education to help them in caring for their very young children. Weekly visits address prenatal care, screenings and assessment, health education, parent-child relationship, and child development.
States receiving federal grants must use home visiting approaches identified by the Department of Health and Human Services, based on research that examined home visiting effectiveness. Wisconsin determined initial grants in 2011 based on a needs assessment that prioritized 18 communities. Those communities were eligible to receive the grants based on high-risk indicators for children and families–such as poor birth outcomes, child maltreatment, poverty, crime, high school drop-out rates, substance abuse, and unemployment.
Four implementation models are being used by the projects: Healthy Families America, Early Head Start, Nurse Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers.
Project Locations
Now there are projects in the following areas:
- Adams County
- Brown County
- Great Lakes Intertribal Council (4 program sites: Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Sokaogon Chippewa Community, St. Croix Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Burnett County)
- Green County
- Kenosha County
- Lac Courte Oreilles, Mino Maajisewin
- Manitowoc County
- Empowering Families of Milwaukee
- Healthy Families Milwaukee
- Next Door Foundation (Milwaukee)
- Northwoods Home Visitation Program (Lincoln, Oneida, Forest Counties)
- Racine County
- Rock County
- Winnebago County
State Implementation
The state team coordinates training and technical assistance for the projects, monitors the grantees, and oversees a rigorous data collection system in six benchmark areas:
- Improved maternal and newborn health;
- Prevention of child injuries, abuse, neglect or maltreatment;
- Improvements in school readiness and achievement;
- Reduction in domestic violence;
- Improvements in family economic self-sufficiency; and
- Improvements in coordination and referrals for other community resources and supports.
Wisconsin is participating in a national evaluation [four Wisconsin programs are involved] that has the promise to provide valuable information on the effectiveness of home visiting, and possibly useful insights about the most effective components of the models. Wisconsin was picked to be part of the evaluation because of our mix of evidence-based models, including Early Head Start.
The Wisconsin home visiting initiative follows a “shared governance” model, with four agencies working together: the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health Services, the Department of Public Instruction, and the Children’s Trust Fund. The Department of Children and Families has the lead role for implementing the home visiting program.
It is exciting for Wisconsin to be one of the lead states in a pioneering national home visitation initiative. Wisconsin’s careful home visiting work can play a major role in determining best practices for the field in the next decade.
