Models
Agencies can choose from dozens of home visiting models when working with families. The models have much in common: they focus on families with young children, they are voluntary, and they deliver services in the home or another preferred location. The models also vary based on factors such as their purpose, who delivers services, the duration or intensity of home visits, and the evidence supporting the model.
When selecting a model, organizations may consider community needs and characteristics, available resources, and potential obstacles and supports. A good match may increase fidelity, or the organization’s ability to implement the model as intended, making it more likely to be effective.
Currently, the following home visiting models meet U.S. Department of Health and Human Services criteria for evidence of effectiveness according to the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness project (HomVEE).
- Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC)
- Child First
- Early Head Start Home-Based Option (EHS)
- Early Intervention Program for Adolescent Mothers
- Early Start (New Zealand)
- Family Check-Up (FCU)
- Family Connects
- Family Spirit
- Health Access Nurturing Development Services (HANDS)
- Healthy Beginnings
- Healthy Families America (HFA)
- HealthySteps*
- Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY)
- Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-Visiting (MECSH)
- Minding the Baby
- Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)
- Oklahoma’s Community-Based Family Resource and Support (CBFRS) Program**
- Parents as Teachers (PAT)
- Play and Learning Strategies (PALS)
- SafeCare Augmented***
The NHVRC also collects data from emerging models that do not meet HomVEE criteria; see the 2018 Home Visiting Yearbook for profiles of nine emerging models.
*During a recent update, HomVEE revised the HealthySteps profile to include changes to the model, noting home visiting is not HealthySteps’ primary service delivery strategy. States could implement HealthySteps with MIECHV funds in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 but could no longer do so beginning in fiscal year 2016.
**Oklahoma’s Community-Based Family Resource and Support Program is no longer in operation. See the HomVEE site for details.
***In July 2018, HomVEE updated its report on SafeCare to state that the model did not meet criteria for the general or tribal population. An adaptation known as SafeCare Augmented does meet criteria for the general population.
