SubscribeProgram Description
The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV) program, funded from a 3 percent set-aside from the larger Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV, the Federal Home Visiting Program), has the goals of:
- Supporting the development of happy, healthy, and successful American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and families through a coordinated home visiting strategy that addresses critical maternal and child health, development, early learning, family support, and child abuse and neglect prevention needs;
- Implementing high-quality, culturally relevant evidence-based home visiting programs in AI/AN communities;
- Expanding the evidence base around home visiting interventions with Native populations; and
- Supporting and strengthening cooperation and coordination and promoting linkages among various programs that serve pregnant women, expectant fathers, young children, and families, resulting in coordinated, comprehensive early childhood systems in grantee communities.
In home visiting programs, a home visitor (social worker, nurse, parent educator) regularly visits an expectant mother or father, parent, or primary caregiver of a young child from birth to kindergarten entry, usually in the family's home. Services can include: providing information about parenting, maternal and child health, child development, and school readiness; linking families to community services, resources, and supports; and social support, advocacy, and mentorship.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funds tribes, consortia of tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to:
- Conduct a coordinated community needs and readiness assessment of at-risk tribal communities through a collaborative process that engages all relevant stakeholders;
- Implement high-quality, culturally relevant, evidence-based home visiting programs that meet the needs of at-risk tribal communities;
- Develop infrastructure and capacity necessary to implement and sustain expand home visiting programs in AI/AN communities;
- Engage with tribal, local, and state early childhood program partners and other stakeholders to maximize the success of home visiting programs and support the comprehensive needs of pregnant women, parents and caregivers, and children from birth to kindergarten entry living in at-risk tribal communities; and
- Conduct rigorous program evaluation activities that will contribute to the empirical evidence base on implementation, efficacy, effectiveness, and/or adaptation of home visiting programs in AI/AN communities.
General Program Requirements
The Tribal MIECHV program aims to provide critical maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting services to eligible families in AI/AN tribal communities, including Indian tribes or urban Indian centers (as defined by Section 4 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, Public Law 94-437).
The MIECHV legislation (Section 511(k)(2) of the Social Security Act) states that an eligible family in Tribal MIECHV means a woman who is pregnant, and the father of the child if the father is available; or a parent or primary caregiver of a child aged birth through kindergarten entry, including grandparents or other relatives of the child, foster parents who are serving as the child's primary caregiver, and non-custodial parents who have an ongoing relationship with, and at times provide physical care for, the child.
There is no income requirement for service eligibility. Tribal MIECHV grantees must give priority to serving high-risk groups including: eligible families who reside in at-risk tribal communities in need of such services, as identified in the needs assessment; low-income eligible families; eligible families who are pregnant women who have not attained age 21; eligible families that have a history of child abuse or neglect or have had interactions with child welfare services; eligible families that have a history of substance abuse or need substance abuse treatment; eligible families that have users of tobacco products in the home; eligible families that are or have children with low student achievement; eligible families with children with developmental delays or disabilities; and eligible families who, or that include individuals who, are serving or formerly served in the Armed Forces, including such families that have members of the Armed Forces who have had multiple deployments outside of the United States.
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