Home visiting is rooted in efforts to care for individuals and families dating back over two centuries. It has evolved into a sophisticated service strategy employed globally in the professions of health, education, and social services.
Home visiting may offer universal services as, for example, all families in a community with a newborn, or targeted services, for example, low income families, immigrant families, or those at risk for lower health and education outcomes.
With the movement of home visiting towards more accountability, the quality of training and supervision has taken on more significance, and numerous professional development resources have become available.
Research and evaluation are being conducted on quality and validity of services and on characteristic of participants, visitors, trainers, and organizations. New assessment instruments are available to advance this work.
Numerous resources are now available for home visitors, trainers, program developers, and researchers, ranging from professional conferences, websites, research summaries, books, and intervention and training materials.
The increased attention to home visiting as a service delivery strategy has brought about increased attention to policies, research, program quality, funding sources, family needs, training, and supervision, as well as increased international interest.
Current social, economic, and political events in the United States make a website on home visiting services for families with children very timely. Home visiting services are being provided for families with children to address needs associated with poverty, children with special needs, immigration, pregnancy, infant wellbeing, and risk for child maltreatment. Almost all states provide one or more home visiting programs.
Though many national, state, and local programs have been developed over time to provide family services through home visiting, no central source is available for information on home visiting.
This website has been created to provide a resource for home visitors, program directors, researchers, policy makers, and students on the broad field of home visiting with families and their children. It provides information on the history of home visiting with families and their children, home visiting programs and services, descriptions of and links to national and international programs, information on training and professional development, and research. News and current events will also be highlighted.