Home visiting programs offer a range of services for expectant parents and families with newborns and young children. These services nurture the attachment between parent and child and enrich parents' capacity to support their children's physical, social, and emotional development. Home visiting programs have a proven local and national track record of helping deliver better outcomes for children and families. As a result, the State of Washington has made a deep, sustained, and growing commitment to supporting a range of home visiting programs across the state
This spring, the Strengthening Families Washington team (SFWA) at the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families underwent two home visiting services application processes. The first will end in July and aims to increase the number of families served by the Home Visiting Services Account (HVSA) by approximately 300 through a competitive award process.
The total funding is $2.1 million, with programs allocated up $300,000 per proposal.
Programs in the expansion can utilize the nine voluntary home visiting models currently in the HVSA:
- Child Parent Psychotherapy delivers services via an in-home modality
- Early Head Start Home-Based Program
- Early Steps to School Success
- Family Spirit
- Nurse-Family Partnership
- Outreach Doula
- Parents as Teachers
- ParentChild+
- Steps Towards Effective Enjoyable Parenting
The Home Visiting Expansion focuses on priority populations and services areas, including:
- American Indian/Alaska Native
- Black/African American
- Pacific Islander
- Hispanic
- Immigrants and refugees
- Rural and remote/frontier communities that currently have no or minimal access to home visiting services
- One or more of the priority 61 school locales
- Federally recognized Tribes in Washington State
During the expansion rounds, staff held webinars and offered open office hours to help with questions. Weekly FAQs were also posted to the funding webpage. Review panels including community, parents, and other agency partners reviewed the applicants and selected programs to be invited for an interview.
After reviewing 23 applications for funding, 11 programs were awarded contracts through the Spring 2022 HVSA Expansion Funding Opportunity.
The following applicants were funded:
- Chelan-Douglas Health District | Nurse Family Partnership, primarily Hispanic, in rural Chelan and Douglas Counties.
- Child Care Action Council | Parents as Teachers to serve 15 families, primarily Hispanic, in Mason County.
- Chinese Information and Service Center | ParentChild+ to serve 24 immigrant families in South King County.
- Eastern Washington University | Early Head Start to serve 28 families in rural Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, and Spokane Counties.
- El Centro de la Raza | Parents as Teachers to serve 18 Latinx families in south King County.
- Horn Of Africa Services | ParentChild+ to serve 40 immigrant families from Eastern Africa, Black/African American, in south King and Pierce County.
- InterCultural Children & Family Services | Parents as Teachers to serve 36 families, primarily Black/African American in Pierce County.
- Lydia Place | Parents as Teachers to serve 16 families, primarily homeless, Hispanic from Whatcom County.
- Open Arms | Perinatal Services Outreach Doula to serve 24 families in south King and Pierce Counties.
- Suquamish Tribe | Parents as Teachers to serve 12 American Indian families, primarily with the Suquamish Tribe.
- Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic | Parents as Teachers to serve 15 American Indian families in rural Yakima County.
In addition to the general home visiting expansion, SFWA is in the process of a specific home visiting funding opportunity for federally recognized Tribes and Tribal organizations within Washington State. A total of $480,000 in funding is available. This Funding Opportunity will serve approximately 50 families. Each program could request up to $240,000 per proposal.
SFWA has been working closely with the Office of Tribal Affairs for outreach to tribes, communication, and application development. SFWA review and received eight letters of interest and applications. Five programs submitted full applications and are currently under review. These programs will use the same nine home visiting models in the HVSA. The SFWA will follow a similar process for review and selection by utilizing community partners and stakeholders.
Tribal applications closed on June 30. The successful programs will be announced by fall.