A stable, secure relationship with a nurturing, caring adult is a key factor in young children’s development. Parents play the lead role in their children’s healthy development, but all parents are stretched in the earliest months and years of their children’s lives. Home visiting programs match parents with trained professionals to provide in-home support during pregnancy and throughout their child’s first years, and they are an effective method to support families during a critical time.
Home visiting strengthens the relationship between parents and children, improves prenatal care and maternal and child health outcomes, increases children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, and provides cost savings for states on expensive social problems such as child abuse and maltreatment, unemployment, poverty and crime. Despite these proven benefits, only a tiny fraction of the more than 120,000 babies born in North Carolina each year will receive home visiting services.
Key Things to Know:
- Home visiting programs serve less than 1% of infants and toddlers across the state.
- 11 counties have no home visiting programs at all.
- 72% of existing home visiting programs have a waitlist for services.
- $1.80-$5.70 is saved for each dollar invested in evidence-based home visiting.