EDC to Lead National Institute Focused on Home Visiting Workforce
EDC and its partners, James Bell Associates (JBA), the Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals (IAFSP), and Start Early, have been selected by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Maternal and Child Health Bureau, to launch and lead the Institute for Home Visiting Workforce Development (the Institute) and the Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management (the Center).
Together, EDC and its partners will strengthen and support HRSA’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program workforce. Additional partners, including Johns Hopkins University, Urban Institute, and Chapin Hall, will play key roles in knowledge development and evaluation.
Over the next five years, the partnership will work to develop systems to improve the quality of MIECHV services, support home visitor professional development and well-being, and reduce costs and disruption related to frequent staff turnover and retraining.
The Institute will build the capacity of home visiting programs to expand, support, and retain a diverse, highly qualified workforce. Key activities will include analyzing workforce trends, identifying effective strategies to support home visitors, and providing technical assistance to promote programs’ use of these strategies.
Housed within the Institute, the Center will advance the use of effective, strengths-based home visiting case management practices in home visiting. The Center team will identify, evaluate, and widely disseminate evidence-based case management best practices that achieve positive health and well-being outcomes for families.
“We are honored to be chosen to lead the Institute and the Center,” said EDC’s Allison LaMont, the director of the initiative. “Home visitors are skilled, dedicated professionals whose work is crucial to the health and well-being of children and families. With JBA, IAFSP, and Start Early, we look forward to realizing HRSA’s vision to provide significant support to propel the vital work of the home visiting workforce and enhance home visitors’ well-being.”
Learn more about EDC’s Maternal and Child Health and Early Childhood Development and Learning work.
EDC is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, EDC has been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs that advance solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. EDC works in the United States and in more than 80 countries around the world.
James Bell Associates (JBA) has been improving the lives of children, families, and communities through evaluation since 1979. JBA conducts independent evaluations and provides actionable, useful findings to advance policy and practice. JBA also builds the capacity of others to conduct evaluations, make data-driven decisions, and improve performance. Using collaborative, community-engaged approaches, JBA honors diverse contexts and perspectives.
Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals (IAFSP) provides tools to enrich skills, promote career growth, and define the practice of early childhood home visiting. IAFSP delivers dynamic, competency-based professional development including validated, national certification and a professional registry. Created by the field for the field, IAFSP has a robust national presence with over 33,500 registered learners.
Start Early is a national nonprofit public-private partnership that advances quality early learning and care for families with young children, prenatally through age 5. Start Early delivers professional learning, program implementation, and advocacy efforts to promote equitable access to opportunity for families and the workforce, integrating expertise in program, policy, and research so children, families, and educators thrive.
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Institute for Home Visiting Workforce Development and the Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management Cooperative Agreement (1 UU6MC50283‐01‐00) as part of an award totaling up to $22,500,000 over five years with government approval and with 0 percentage financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.