About Home Visiting

Early childhood home visiting is a service delivery strategy that matches expectant parents and caregivers of young children with a designated support person—typically a trained nurse, social worker, or early childhood specialist—who guides them through the early stages of raising a family. Services are voluntary, may include caregiver coaching or connecting families to needed services, and are provided in the family’s home or another location of the family’s choice. 

National home visiting resource center

Home visiting programs exist in thousands of communities across the United States. Programs are situated in many different types of community-based organizations and local implementing agencies, such as schools, health departments, non-profits, hospitals and more. Funding for home visiting programs can come from various mechanisms, the largest of which is the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV Program). Most recently reauthorized in 2022, the MIECHV Program is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Most of the funding is awarded to states and territories to expand evidence-based home visiting availability, usually through contracts with community-based organizations and local implementing agencies. Tribes, tribal organizations and urban Indian organizations are also grantees and receive federal funding to develop, implement, and evaluate home visiting programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Lastly, a portion of the funding is designated for research, evaluation and continuous quality improvements for home visiting programs nationwide.