Supporting Family Economic Well-Being through Home Visiting (HomeEc)

2021-2025

The purpose of this project was to advance understanding of how home visiting programs, including those funded by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) and Tribal MIECHV Programs, can and do support family economic well-being.  

Family economic well-being is key to families’ long-term stability and is linked to positive outcomes in other areas targeted by home visiting programs, such as parenting. Given what we know about the relationship between economic stability and parenting, and the complex impact of economic strain on caregiver well-being, it is important to understand how a stronger focus on family economic well-being in home visiting could support overall family functioning. 

The project completed an initial knowledge development phase, which included a literature review, a document review, and interviews and focus groups with home visiting practitioners and with families who have participated in home visiting. This knowledge development phase produced a conceptual model and identified strategies currently being used or that could be used by home visiting programs to support family economic well-being. The project also performed additional research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on family economic well-being, how home visiting programs responded, and lessons learned. The project began development of strategies to support family economic well-being, in collaboration with select home visiting programs.  

The project was awarded to Mathematica with subcontracts to James Bell Associates, Start Early, and Decision Information Resources, Inc.  

This project was led by the Administration for Children and Families in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration.

This publication was modified in August 2025 to comply with Executive Order 14151Point(s) of contact: Pooja Curtin and Laura Nerenberg

Related Resources

Read the HomeEc project's special topics study on the economic experiences of select early childhood home visiting programs and the families they served during the COVID-19 pandemic, including implications that could be relevant for future service delivery disruptions.

This report describes findings from literature and document reviews exploring how to define, measure, and support family economic well-being in early childhood home visiting (ECHV). The findings can provide useful insights to policymakers, researchers, and ECHV practitioners, who can learn about potential avenues to support family economic well-being, and who might be interested in different sections based on their work.