Home Visiting Program
With our community-based partners, the Ounce of Prevention Fund offers voluntary home-visiting services to nearly 1,900 families throughout Illinois.
In our evidence-based home visiting programs, parent coaches provide child-development and parenting information to help teen parents create safe, stimulating home environments; model positive and language-rich relationships; and ensure families are connected to medical, dental, mental-health, and other supports.
Research has shown that home visiting programs increase children's literacy and high school graduation rates, as well as how much parents read to their children. In addition, such programs have been shown to increase positive birth outcomes for children, improve the likelihood that families have a medical home, and decrease rates of child abuse and neglect.
Home visiting is at the core of the Ounce's holistic programs serving at-risk families. Our programs also offer parenting and prenatal groups as well as mental health clinicians.
The Ounce provides technical assistance to home visiting programs, and is the leading provider of professional development and training for home visitors in the state.
Related Resources:
- Publication: Parents Too Soon/Doula Annual Report 2008-2009
- Home Visitation: Assessing Progress, Managing Expectations
- Home Visiting Longitudinal Research Study
- Chicago Tribune - Better parenting: Home visits show young mom how to break her family's cycle of violence