Project Title: Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Initiative
Recipient Name: Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH)
Mailing Address: 250 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02108
Principal Investigator Name: Christine Silva
Contact Phone Number: (617) 624-5962
Email Address: christine.silva@mass.gov
Web Site Address: www.mass.gov/dph/homevisiting
Annotation: Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MA MIECHV) provides evidence-based home visiting (EBHV) services in 18 communities to improve family and child health and well-being. MA MIECHV priorities include delivering data-driven programming to families affected by substance use, mental health, domestic violence, and trauma and improving service coordination within the early childhood system of care.
Goal and Objectives: Through a racial equity and trauma-informed framework MA MIECHV goals aim to strengthen state Title V activities, enhance coordination of services within early childhood systems of care, and provide comprehensive supports to improve family outcomes. The objectives are to 1) leverage MA MIECHV to achieve measurable progress on seven of the ten Title V priorities; 2) use program data to promote racial equity and equitable access to services; 3) increase the percent of local implementing agencies (LIAs) that offer compensated family engagement and leadership opportunities; 4) collaborate with national, state and local stakeholders to coordinate and streamline state initiatives and supports for families within the continuum of early childhood services; 5) increase the percent of referrals made during a Welcome Family visit that were successfully connected to services; 6) explore opportunities to elevate MA MIECHV’s visibility and seek opportunities to diversify funding; 7) increase the capacity of MA MIECHV LIAs; 8) recruit and retain qualified staff and increase the percent of LIAs with no staff vacancies; 9) design and implement strategies that tailor home visiting to support sub-populations; 10) demonstrate improvement in four of the six benchmark areas; 11) apply racial equity reframing tool to different aspects of programming; 12) provide programmatic and fiscal subrecipient monitoring; and 13) conduct an evaluation through participation in a Coordinated State Evaluation focused family engagement and health equity.
Methodology: With Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 funds, MA MIECHV will support 21 LIAs to implement Parents as Teachers, Healthy Families America, and Healthy Families Massachusetts in 18 communities: Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, North Adams, Pittsfield, Revere, Southbridge, Springfield, Webster, and Worcester. Priority populations include families affected by substance use, mental health, and domestic violence. The proposed annual caseload is 1,534 for FY 2022 and FY 2023. Activities will include aligning programming with Title V priorities and MIECHV performance measures; supporting EBHV and Welcome Family; strengthening family engagement activities; nurturing the home visiting work force; incorporation of peer recovery coaching into EBHV; and collecting and analyzing data to examine early effects of home visiting. MA MIECHV will continue collaborate with state and community stakeholders to strengthen referral networks and streamline supports for families within the continuum of early childhood services.