Why Home Visiting Matters

Parenting can be among life’s biggest challenges. For thousands of American families, voluntary home visiting offers crucial guidance and support. During a home visit, a nurse or trained professional helps at-risk parents—often single, teen moms—learn about their child’s early physical and emotional development. These parenting coaches offer new moms and dads counseling on a range of critical parenting skills.

Council for a Strong America understands the impact of home visiting: From reducing reducing child abuse and neglect, which prevents crime, to sustaining a competitive workforce, the data-driven approach influences many positive outcomes.

This year, Congress needs to reauthorize the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, or the program will expire. Evidence-based and with bipartisan support, MIECHV provides funding for states, territories, and tribal entities to implement home visiting programs tailored to their specific populations. House Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, Kevin Brady (TX-08) said, “MIECHV is a solution that helps more families climb the economic ladder and empowers parents to achieve better outcomes for themselves and their children.”

We couldn’t agree more. Council for a Strong America strongly supports reauthorization of MIECHV. That’s why over the next few months, we will be featuring home visiting stories and testimonials from states across the country. We will also release a national home visiting report making the case for MIECHV. Our home visiting factsheets make the case for home visiting as it prevents crime, saves money, and helps parents.