Home visitors play a critical role in supporting children and families, often building trusted relationships while navigating the complex needs of the families they serve. But the work can also come with significant professional demands, including chronic stress and burnout. Addressing this issue is essential not only to the health of the workforce, but to the long-term health of the home visiting system.
Across the country, state and local leaders are looking for ways to better support the well-being of the home visiting workforce. In northern California, First 5 agencies across 10 counties came together to better understand what home visitors need, and what their regional system could do in response.
The 10 First 5 agencies across Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Sierra, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties partnered with our Start Early Consulting team to identify strategies to promote workforce health and well-being. Together, we gathered input from 115 home visitors and system administrators through focus groups, interviews, surveys, and sensemaking sessions. The findings reinforced an important point: workforce well-being is shaped not only by individual supports, but by the systems and conditions in which people work.
What home visitors said they need:
- Regular reflective supervision
- Accessible, supportive leadership
- Flexible schedules and workplace practices
System-level opportunities:
- Dedicated staffing to reduce administrative burdens and caseload pressures
- A cost model study to inform salary recommendations
- Greater access to infant and early childhood mental health consultation
Building on those insights, the 10 First 5 agencies joined forces to test a regional approach to supporting workforce well-being through a wellness pilot, including trainings on topics like self-care and belonging and culminating in a full-day Wellness Summit. The pilot complemented the region’s longer-term work to address workforce challenges by creating opportunities for home visitors to build connections, access practical supports and invest in their own well-being.
The challenges identified in these 10 counties are not unique to northern California. Communities across the country are working to recruit, retain and support home visitors, and this work offers a reminder that meaningful workforce solutions require listening to the people closest to the work and addressing the systems in which they work. Ultimately, strong home visiting systems are sustained by the people who show up for families every day.
