Recognizing the potential of home visitation for new parents, the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse (NCPCA), in partnership with Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, launched Healthy Families America (HFA).

Building upon two decades of research and the experiences of the Hawaii Healthy Start program in putting that research into practice, Healthy Families America is an initiative to promote positive parenting, child health and development thereby preventing child abuse and other poor childhood outcomes. NCPCA along with many national partners such as, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Hospital Association, the National Head Start Association and the Cooperative Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been collaborating to facilitate partnerships among state and local affiliates to support, implement, and institutionalize home visitation services for new parents within their state.

Over the past several years, states across the country have embraced the critical elements of HFA and are working towards implementing statewide home visitation policies and programs. The critical elements of HFA represent the field's most current knowledge about how to implement successful home visitation programs. For example, we know the programs that are successfully reducing child abuse and neglect are intensive (meeting with families on a regular basis), comprehensive (addressing a range of issues related to parenting and other stressful issues), long-term (over a three to five year period), flexible (in responding to families' needs) and culturally appropriate (understanding and working within a family's cultural norms). Criteria such as these allows for flexibility in service implementation and permits integration into a wide range of communities. Thus providing an opportunity for innovation.

Why is Healthy Families America needed?

How does a Healthy Families America program operate?

Rationale for a statewide Healthy Families America effort

Critical elements for effective home visitor services

Key characteristics for evaluating Healthy Families America efforts

Tracking the progress of the Healthy Families America Initiative

Healthy Families America Brochure

Healthy Families America State Contacts

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