Home visiting programs in Ohio deserve reauthorization

To truly see what’s happening in your community, take the opportunity to talk with a home visitor and learn what challenges new families may be facing dayto-day. As a current, longtime board member and former chairman of Every Child Succeeds in Cincinnati, I would like to thank U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) on doing just that by attending a recent site visit to Every Child Succeeds.

Every Child Succeeds is the largest home visiting provider in Ohio, serving 2,000 families a year. It provides comprehensive home visiting services to support child health and development for families affected by social and economic inequality.

I commend Congressman Wenstrup for his warmth and understanding while he heard from nurse home visitors and mothers from Nurse-family Partnership, one of Every Child Succeeds’ three evidence-based home visiting models. Nurse-family Partnership delivers preventative health services, trusted information and helpful resources to first-time moms to build the lives they want for themselves and their children.

Every Child Succeeds is partially funded by the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. However, the current funding for MIECHV expires this year, and Congress needs to pass new legislation to continue funding for MIECHV. Given the effectiveness of the program and the broad, bipartisan support that it has, it’s also time to finally expand MIECHV funding.

Wenstrup’s leadership and longstanding support of home visiting and the MIECHV program is evident. He lead efforts to introduce and pass the

Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act through the House Ways and Means Committee. This legislation, named for the late Rep. Walorski (R-IN), who was tragically killed in a car accident in August, would provide a five-year extension of the MIECHV program and double its funding over the course of the five years.

As the Committee deliberated, Wenstrup shared his experience visiting Every Child Succeeds and said, “To hear from a young mom and know she’s in a better place and on a better path reminded me of the good work this program does and showed me the value of investing in a program we know works.”

But there are still many more steps that must happen before future funding for MIECHV becomes law.

Here in Ohio, MIECHV supports more than 25,000 home visits each year to families. Gov. Dewine has called for the expansion of Nurse-family Partnership to every county in Ohio and has asked that all available state and federal funding sources should be used to advance access to home visiting for families who need these critical services.

As an early childhood advocate in Ohio, I know home visiting programs work as I have seen the transformational impacts they can have on our families and our communities.

It is imperative that Congress finish their work to reauthorize, expand and strengthen MIECHV before the end of the year so that home visiting programs in Ohio — and across the country — do not lose vital funding. Better outcomes for children and families create better outcomes for all of us.