Home visiting programs help the whole family
By Cara Craig
Dara hugged me. “Thank you, Miss Cara! I love that you came. I was scared. I don’t understand the directions so much.” We were enrolling four of her five children in school and learning about bus routes, lunch programs, teachers, and supply lists. These may seem like simple tasks to someone fluent in English, but can be prohibitive to parents like Dara, who are not native English speakers.
Dara and her family immigrated to Illinois from Syria five years ago. Through a Head Start/Early Head Start program called home visiting, I support Dara’s 3-year-old daughter, Naya, but the truth is that the whole family benefits. Through this federally funded program, home educators provide resources, connections, and experiences to families like Dara’s. Participation in programs like these has been proven to increase parental involvement in school, decrease truancy, and help to break the poverty cycle for families. Home visitors help to educate parents on child development and safety, find new homes, and create and achieve goals. Dara is passionate about her goals; she wants to do everything possible to ensure that her children are thriving in school. She also wants to reunite with her parents and eventually own her own business.
Home visits are invaluable for parents like Dara and money invested in this program reaps many rewards. Research has shown that for every dollar invested in Early Childhood Education (ECE) the benefits are between $4 to $16. Yet these programs are underfunded and understaffed. The impact that home visitors make on a child’s development and a family’s well-being is huge, yet we reach just only about 25% of qualifying families.
As we look for ways to support the influx of immigrants arriving in our communities, what if home visiting was available to all families with young children? There are a few things we can do to make this happen.
First, we can work to create a cadre of dedicated parent educators by giving “graduates” of home visiting some additional training on child development, successful goal creation, and documentation skills. This training could come from the Illinois Network of Child Care Resources and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA) or Head Start, providing supervision from professional home visitors, and additional funds from the state to support it. Not only would this education boost the original family’s well being, but it in turn would exponentially help others. Currently, there is a Head Start requirement that a home visitor have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in ECE. But in a recent focus group I participated in through INCCRRA, we identified the knowledge, skills, and disposition needed for the position, and determined these things could be obtained without a degree.
While my ECE background is an important part of my work, it is my lived experience as a struggling mother that brings credibility to my words. It is my relatability that makes the difference. Head Start has a strong history of empowering parents as their child’s first teacher and also supporting them to become teachers in the classroom and advocates in the community. I believe this position could evolve and become accessible to people who have participated in the program and have shared lived experiences to the families they would serve.
Next, we should increase the funding for programs like Head Start, that provide home visits. In SB1794, the Illinois Department of Human Services proposed the idea that every new parent should have access to a home visiting program. Its reasoning, to: “improve maternal and newborn health; prevent child abuse and neglect; promote children’s development and readiness to participate in school; and connect families to needed community resources and supports,” is based on solid research. Home visiting, more than any other intervention, breaks the poverty cycle. But rather than connect this promising idea with Head Start, the department sought to create another program entirely. If we could connect these new dollars with a program already proven to accomplish these goals, we would not have to waste the funds setting up another program.
Imagine Dara guiding people through the process of registering children for school. Would she need some guidance and support in doing this? Of course. But she would offer families new to this country her invaluable experience and would create a positive cycle for immigrant families and communities, and it would bring her closer to her own personal goals. Her success would create a pathway for others, including her children to follow.
Cara Craig is a home visitor in Evanston, Illinois and a 2023–2024 Teach Plus Illinois Early Childhood Educator Policy Fellow.
