Address: 450 W. State Street - 4th Floor, Boise, ID 83702-6056
Project Director: Taryn Yates
Phone: (208) 334-4961
Email address: Taryn.Yates@dhw.idaho.gov
Annotation: The Idaho Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Idaho MIECHV) program aims to continuously serve high-need communities throughout Idaho. Idaho MIECHV has established agreements with local implementing agencies (LIAs) to deliver evidence-based home visiting services (EBHV), which have been shown to promote positive parenting, alleviate poverty, and reduce rates of child abuse and neglect. Idaho’s activities include building and integrating trauma-informed early childhood systems, developing and supporting continuous quality improvement (CQI) projects, ensuring data quality and model fidelity through consistent monitoring and evaluation, and providing professional development opportunities for Home Visitors.
Purpose: Home Visiting programs aim to support families in at-risk communities, advance health equity by leveraging individual family strengths, identify and address the social determinants of health, and ensure children and families have equal opportunity to reach their fullest potential.
Goals and Objectives: Idaho MIECHV aims to implement voluntary, EBHV programs that serve families in at-risk communities to improve outcomes, ensure high-quality home visiting services, and collaborate with state and local partners to coordinate early childhood systems and high-quality services. Idaho MIECHV will accomplish this by:
1) Demonstrating outcomes through program evaluation and benchmark reporting
2) Offering training opportunities to Home Visitors that are aligned and coordinated with the comprehensive statewide early childhood system
3) Developing and supporting CQI projects
4) Building and integrating trauma-informed early childhood systems
5) Exploring the feasibility of implementing a centralized intake system (CIS) to support streamlined enrollment into home visiting programs
Methodology: Idaho MIECHV has established contracts with LIAs to deliver EBHV services in at-risk communities using the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) and Parents as Teachers (PAT) models. The at-risk communities in Idaho funded by Idaho MIECHV will include the following: Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Shoshone, Benewah, Latah, Nez Perce, Clearwater, Lewis, Idaho, Adams, Valley, Lemhi, Boise, Elmore, Canyon, Owyhee, Ada, Elmore, Twin Falls, Jerome, Bannock, Bingham, Power, Madison, Bear Lake, Franklin, and Bonneville counties, as well as the counties that encompass the Coeur d’ Alene, Nez Perce, and Shoshone-Bannock tribal reservations. All 27 counties and communities identified as high-risk in the 2020 Needs Assessment will be served with MIECHV funds. The total proposed caseload of family slots is 507 for FY2022 and 523 for FY2023. The current contracted caseload for FY2021 is 425. Key activities to ensure appropriate networking and support include: regularly coordinating and convening with state and community partners to guide planning and implementation; evaluation of program activities, outcomes, and implementation; and subrecipient monitoring via check-in calls, reports, data analysis, and annual site visits.