It is a tough budget season, but Washington State will send $355,000 in grants to support four home visiting programs, part of a new initiative created this year.

Even as Gov. Christine Gregoire and the state legislature dealt with a massive budget deficit this year, they created the Home Visiting Services Account, which merges public and private funds to support home visiting programs around Washington. The new money dovetails with the Obama administration’s successful effort to include new funding for home visiting programs, which provide health, nutritional and other support for parents during pregnancy and after a baby is born, to this year’s sweeping health care reform law. Home visiting programs often focus on poor and at-risk families. 

Research has shown home visiting can lower the effects of poverty, help reduce child abuse and neglect and promote school readiness. Overall, the new grants in Washington will support evidenced-based programs and 571 families.

“Parenting is already tough and stressful, and it’s even more so if you’re living in poverty. If we really want to give young children a great start in life, we need to help strengthen their families,” Thrive by Five Washington president Nina Auerbach said in a statement. “Home visiting programs, which often start working with parents before a baby is born and then stay connected through those first few years, have repeatedly shown to make a significant difference.”

Thrive by Five, which uses home visiting as one of seven key strategies in its two demonstration communities of White Center and East Yakima, is overseeing the Home Visiting Services Account.

This year’s round of grants will support three home visiting models – Nurse Family Partnerships, Parents as Teachers and the Parent Child Home Program. Overall, the grants will fund:

1. The Nurse Family Partnership in the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, $100,000: The grant will provide services to 46-50 families in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood and the south Tacoma and Parkland communities. Services will be directed toward African-American and Pacific Islander low-income, first-time moms. Funds will be leveraged with another $980,000 to serve a total of about 175 families.
2. The Nurse Family Partnership in the Mason County Public Health Department, $100,000: The partnership will provide services to 20 families. Services will reach Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska Native and non-Hispanic white families in this area. Funds will be leveraged with another $28,000 to serve a total of 25 families.
3. The Parent Child Home Program in the West Valley School District, $55,000:  The program will provide services to 45 Hispanic families. Funds will be leveraged with another $90,000.
4. The Parents as Teachers Program in the Healthy Start/Friends of Youth, $100,000:  The program will provide services to 45 Hispanic families in King and Snohomish Counties. Funds will be leveraged with another $652,000 to serve 326 families.