The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has announced new grants for nearly one-third of the counties in the state to increase family home visiting – a proven way to benefit at-risk children, promote life-long health, and reduce the need for future community spending on social programs.
Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board, received $2.1 million.
The new round of grants authorized by the 2017 Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton includes more than $25 million for 16 community grantees in both the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. This latest round of funding benefits 26 new counties and one tribal nation. Over the last year, Minnesota has successfully supported planning, start-up and expansion of evidence-based family home visiting programs in three tribal nations and 51 counties.
The second phase of grant funding announced this week will expand the benefits of family home visiting to more communities and allow for additional evidence-based home visiting service models catering to the specific needs and priorities of local communities. Many of the grantees consist of partnerships of multiple agencies or counties working together and providing services within their communities under one grant award.
Family home visiting programs serve at-risk families such as first-time moms and families facing challenges like mental illness, domestic abuse or substance abuse. Through home visiting programs, a nurse or other trained professional provides practical health and parenting support to parents and pregnant women during ongoing home visits until the child is 2 to 3 years old.
“Our youngest, most vulnerable children and their families deserve all the care they need to grow up healthy, safe, and strong,” said Dayton. “The home visits and ongoing support made possible by these grants will help hundreds of families across Minnesota get a better start in life.”
National research has shown that family home visiting programs result in improved health during pregnancy, fewer childhood injuries and improved school readiness. These programs also have had a demonstrated impact on reducing child emergency room visits and the number of months a family is on welfare. There is a return on investment in the range of $2.88 to $5.70 for every dollar spent to serve high-risk families through the Nurse-Family Partnership home visiting program, according to an analysis by the RAND Corporation.
“Cook County is not an individual recipient of this home visiting grant as we have not had the volume of births or capacity to implement this particular home visiting program,” said Alison McIntyre, director of Cook County Public Health and Human Services.
“The Community Health Board made a joint three-county application to expand the evidence-based Healthy Families America program to serve St. Louis, Carlton, and Lake counties.
“Cook County PHHS intends to implement the Family Connect evidence based home visiting program which we found to be a better fit for the families we serve in a small and rural county. We received grant funds through another source to implement this program,” she said.
This round of grants follows a first round of $4.86 million in grants awarded in October 2017. The first phase allowed MDH to continue home visiting services and to sustain critical home visiting infrastructure in greater Minnesota. The funding covered two tribal nations and 18 counties in greater Minnesota.
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