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Act Now: Support Critical Home Visiting Services

Tell your lawmakers to increase Maternal, Infant & Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) funding and expand the program to help support more babies, families and providers.

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What is MIECHV? 

The federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program strengthens communities by promoting positive parent-child relationships that are proven to improve short- and long-term outcomes for children and their families.

This funding enables states, territories and tribal entities to develop and implement evidence-based, voluntary home visiting programs among their communities. Learn more about home visiting.

Baby in High ChiarMIECHV-funded programs focus on services for families with young children living in communities left under-served and under-resourced, where new parents or caregivers are left at risk for experiencing poor maternal and/or child health outcomes. Programs must meet benchmarks set by U.S. Department of Health & Human Services that demonstrate evidence of effectiveness.

What Can Congress Do?

Start Early’s Recommendations for Reauthorization 

After nearly a decade of funding levels of the same amount, Start Early recommends that Congress reauthorize MIECHV for five years and:

  • Increase funding by $200 million annually, arriving at a total of $1.4 billion, to reach more families and better support the workforce
  • Double the current amount of MIECHV funds set aside for tribal populations from 3% to 6% to reach more families in American Indian and Alaska Native communities
  • Continue to allow virtual home visiting as an option, providing greater flexibility in where, how and when families can receive visits, and increasing access
  • Provide disaggregated data (i.e., breakdown of data, often based on demographics) on benchmark outcomes to ensure equitable access to home visiting services across all communities
Make Your Voice Heard

Take Action

Help Make Proposed Investments to Critical Home Visiting Services Reality

Tell your lawmakers to vote “yes!” to the Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act, the latest proposal for reauthorizing and increasing funding for critical home visiting services.

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*MIECHV data provided by the Health Resources & Services Administration. HRSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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