Home Visiting
Our Role in Home Visiting
Early childhood home visiting programs give pregnant and parenting families the support they need to succeed. The results: healthier pregnancies and births, better parenting, stronger families, and kids who are better prepared for school and life.
These free programs match families with a home visitor who provides personalized coaching, guidance, and connections to helpful resources in the community. This in-home service can be either virtual or in-person and may include everything from emotional support and breastfeeding consulting to parenting tips and child development screenings.
It all starts with a well-trained staff and a network that makes it easy for families to participate. That’s where we come in.
With funding from First 5 LA and Los Angeles County, we:
- Oversee all activity in the network to ensure that sites are adhering to model fidelity and helping families thrive
- Offer a comprehensive training package and ongoing professional development for hundreds of home visitors
- Support outreach and recruitment
- Manage a robust database and provide useful data analysis and reports
- Advance policies that support home visiting
- Manage an alliance of diverse groups through the L.A. County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visitation Consortium
Home Visiting in L.A. County
With funding from First 5 LA and other state grants, along with support from L.A. County agencies and a handful of nonprofits, over 33,000 families with children up to age 5 receive home visiting support from one of these home visiting models each year: Welcome Baby, Healthy Families America, Parents as Teachers, Early Head Start, Healthy Start, Nurse-Family Partnership, Partnership for Families, and the Family Preservation program.
We run the L.A. County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visitation Consortium, which brings them all together. Visit the Consortium's website to learn more.
The Family Strengthening Network
Within the larger network of home visiting programs in L.A. County, LA Best Babies Network — in partnership with First 5 LA and Work2Live Well — leads the Family Strengthening Network, a system of home visiting services that consists of around 700 home visiting program staff implementing 3 different home visiting models at 12 hospitals and over two dozen community-based organizations each year.
LABBN provides the training, database, and communications infrastructure, and works with each hospital and organization to ensure fidelity to the home visiting models the Network uses: Welcome Baby, Healthy Families America, and Parents as Teachers.
Welcome Baby, a First 5 LA-funded program, offers free and voluntary home visiting support services to Los Angeles County families who deliver at one of the 11 participating hospitals (no matter their income, insurance, or immigration status). Depending on where a family lives, the program may provide support during pregnancy and up to 9 months after the baby is born. Learn more and sign up at WelcomeBabySupport.org.
Healthy Families America (HFA) is a national evidence-based home visiting model that promotes child well-being and prevents the abuse and neglect of children by delivering home visiting services that empower families and communities. Most HFA programs provide services for up to 3-5 years after the baby is born.
Parents as Teachers (PAT) is also a national evidence-based home visiting model. It promotes optimal early development and school readiness, and helps parents understand that they are their child’s first teacher. PAT programs provide services for up to 5 years after the baby is born.
The Family Strengthening Network's Impact
In L.A. County, home to the nation’s largest home visiting network, just a little over 31,000 of the nearly 488,393 children up to age 5 eligible for home visiting services receive this home-based support each year.
The following is a snapshot of the impact of the home visiting programs within the Family Strengthening Network during fiscal year 2023-24:
The Los Angeles County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visitation Consortium
Beyond supporting the direct work with families, LA Best Babies Network oversees the Los Angeles County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visitation Consortium, an alliance of over 60 home visiting agencies and maternal and child health organizations working to strengthen expectant and parenting families through home visiting services. From identifying best practices to shining a light on how home visiting investments pay off for families and communities, the Consortium is committed to advocating for what is best for L.A. County youngest residents and their families. To learn more about the work of the Consortium, visit HomeVisitingLA.org.
