Legislator Gets a First-Hand Look at Home Visiting in Washington

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids member and former Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick had the opportunity to participate in a Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) home visit on October 29th. Representative Lovick is currently a member of the Washington State House of Representatives, where he serves as Speaker Pro Tempore and Chair of the Rules Committee.

He also serves as a member of the House Human Services and Early Learning Committee, which is what drew his focus to the importance of home visiting. His visit, with home visitor Jennifer, mom Leah, and baby Andrew, came via the NFP program run through ChildStrive in Snohomish County.

Home visiting programs are crucial in helping parents establish healthy, stable home environments where kids can grow and thrive. There is a wide range of positive outcomes home visits can generate for families and society, including an overall reduction in crime. In fact, research related to NFP has found that children who did not participate in home visiting experienced twice as many arrests and more than twice as many convictions by age 19 compared to their peers who had.

Rep. Lovick’s days as a law-enforcement leader and his current position as a member of the Human Services and Early Learning Committee have combined to give him a unique perspective on the value of these programs—a value underscored when he has the opportunity to see them in action, as he did a few weeks ago.

“Clearly, this is a program that works,” he said.

In Washington, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids leads the state’s Home Visiting Advocacy Coalition. The coalition is advocating for an additional $3 million state investment in home visiting for fiscal year 2021. Earlier this year, the coalition successfully secured $3.8 million in additional home visiting funds to expand services to families in 2019-21.