U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program Development and Implementation Grants

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, will support federally-recognized Indian tribes (or a consortium of Indian tribes), tribal organizations, or urban Indian organizations to conduct community needs assessments; develop the infrastructure needed for widespread planning, adopting, implementing, expanding, enhancing, and sustaining of evidence-based maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting programs; and provide high-quality evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women and families with young children aged birth to kindergarten entry.

Home visiting programs are intended to promote outcomes such as improved maternal and prenatal health, infant health, and child health and development; reduced child maltreatment; improved parenting practices related to child development outcomes; improved school readiness; improved family socio-economic status; improved coordination of referrals to community resources and supports; and reduced incidence of injuries, crime, and domestic violence. The program should also result in a coordinated system of early childhood home visiting in tribal communities that has the capacity to provide infrastructure and supports to assure high-quality, evidence-based practice.

During the 5-year project periods of the cooperative agreements, funds will support:

• Conducting a needs and readiness assessment of the tribal community that that considers community characteristics and the quality and capacity of existing home visiting programs and other supportive services, examines community readiness to implement a quality home visiting program, is coordinated with other relevant needs assessments, and involves community stakeholders.
• Collaborative planning efforts to address identified needs by developing capacity and infrastructure to fully plan for, adopt, implement, and sustain high-quality home visiting programs that have strong fidelity to evidence-based models.
• Providing high-quality culturally relevant, evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women, expectant fathers, and parents and primary caregivers of young children aged birth to kindergarten entry.
• Engaging in activities to strengthen the ability of early childhood programs to work together and develop a network of supports for expectant families and families with young children.
• Developing and implementing performance measurement and continuous quality improvement systems.
• Conducting rigorous local program evaluations utilizing quality research methods that answer questions of interest to grantee communities and the broader field.

Amount: $1,000,000 is available for up to four awards that range from $100,000-$400,000 each. The average award size is expected to be $250,000 each year.

Eligibility: Federally recognized Indian tribes (or consortium of tribes), tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations.

This announcement is intended for tribal entities that do not have prior experience with implementing evidence-based home visiting models, performance measurement systems, and rigorous evaluation. A separate announcement is intended for entities with such prior experience.

Link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/index.cfm?switch=foa&fon=HHS-2016-ACF-OCC-TH-1161

Note: A letter of intent is due by February 6, 2016.

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