Contact: Sara Buschman, 608.266.9000
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the Department of Children and Families two grants totaling more than $4.7 million, one of which is the largest discretionary grant received by the Department since it was created. These grants will expand and improve the quality of home visiting services to at-risk families in nine counties and six tribes. This will allow more families to receive home visits from nurses, social workers, and community support workers to improve health, child development, school readiness, economic self-sufficiency, and child abuse prevention.
“Home visiting programs have a solid track record of providing parents with the tools they need to get their children off to the right start in life,” said Department of Children and Families Secretary Eloise Anderson. “Quality home-visiting programs lay the foundation for a child’s development and strengthen families which in turn makes communities stronger.”
These grants will be used by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), in partnership with the Department of Health Services, to support home visiting programs in Milwaukee, Racine, Green, Lincoln, Oneida, Forest, Rock, Brown and Burnett counties as well as the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Sokaogon Chippewa Community, and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s home visiting programs promote positive parent-child interactions and healthy child development as well as connect families to local services that help children learn and thrive.
Home visiting is a service provided in the homes of pregnant women, children from birth to eight years, and their families. Research has shown that home visiting programs can improve outcomes for children and families, including improving maternal and child health, reducing child maltreatment, increasing parental employment, and improving the rate at which children reach developmental milestones.
Wisconsin’s Home Visiting Project is a collaborative effort from many partners which is guided by the work of the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) Task Force. The Task Force serves as advisors to DCF, the Department of Health Services, the Department of Public Instruction, and the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund, on how to best integrate home visiting into the early childhood care and education as well as family support systems.
For more information about Wisconsin’s home visiting program, visit dcf.wisconsin.gov/children/home_visiting_needs_assessment.
