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Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

Help from health, social service, and child development professionals

On September 30, 2021 WIC, MIECHV and Tribal MIECHV led a joint webinar, Opportunities for Collaboration and Partnership between WIC and MIECHV to Support Child and Family Health.  Partners from Montana, Georgia, and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (WA) shared their cross-program collaboration experiences and how it has benefited families.

Did you know that WIC and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program share a common goal -- to improve maternal and child health outcomes? In state and local MIECHV programs, trained home visitors meet regularly with expectant parents and families with young children living within communities at risk for poor maternal and child health outcomes. Home visitors evaluate families’ strengths and needs, connect families to resources, and partner with parents to set and attain goals for their family. This two-generation approach has been shown to improve the health and well-being of parents and children by preventing child abuse and neglect, supporting positive parenting, and promoting child development and school readiness.

Among the services home visitors provide are:

Teaching positive parenting skills and promoting positive parent-child interactions.

Promoting early learning in the home, with an emphasis on strong communication between parents and children to stimulate early language development and literacy.

Providing support to mothers on breastfeeding and caring for their babies.

Screening children for developmental delays and facilitating early diagnosis and intervention for autism and other developmental disabilities.

Linking families to needed services in the community, including primary care, behavioral health care, and nutrition services such as WIC.

A joint letter between WIC and MIECHV encourages program staff to collaborate, share resources, and use referrals to enhance participant-centered services as an ongoing commitment to support cross-program collaboration at the State and local level. Collaborating with your state's MIECHV program provides an opportunity to augment WIC’s nutrition education and breastfeeding support messages, and to connect WIC participants with other health and social services. MIECHV’s interactive map provides links to state fact sheets and each State's Home Visiting Program website to help you connect your WIC participants with home visiting services in your state.

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