As with many programs requiring home visitors, funding for personnel and materials for home visits is a continuing challenge. MICA's leadership team and resource development office are seeking further funding to expand home visit opportunities.

MICA offers home visits through Early Head Start programs.

MICA hopes to partner more closely with Marshalltown-based Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) to collect data on home visit opportunities. As the project expands, we hope also to add other agencies to a growing network of home visit advocates.

Home visiting has been part of the landscape of the United States since the late 1800s, when home visitors were sent to the homes of the poor to act as examples of how to live appropriately. Home visiting is a service delivery mechanism that has been used across many disciplines, for prevention or intervention, to reach individuals from pregnancy through old age. These programs typically use a trained worker, professional or paraprofessional, to provide services and information or guidance in a way that overcomes many of the traditional barriers to service delivery. For example, many high-risk families have limited transportation options. Home visitation reaches families in their homes, eliminating this barrier.

Home visiting shows promise as a way to work with families who may be difficult to engage in supportive services. The rigorous research to date has indicated that home visiting has the potential to yield positive results for these high-risk families. [Sarah A. Avellar and Lauren H. Supplee, "Effectiveness of Home Visiting in Improving Child Health and Reducing Child Maltreatment," Pediatrics 132, issue supplement 2 (November 2013).]

You can find out more about the effectiveness of home visiting here, here, and here. To see a MICA family development specialist on a home visit, click here.

A community development plan to increase home visiting slots is developed by November 2016.

• Hold community stakeholder planning retreats – April 2016; July 2016; September 2016
• Test strategies with one request for funding/resources – October 2016
• Implement plan – November 2016
• Identify key stakeholders for planning sessions – December 2015