Healthy Families is a national home visitation model designed to support expectant and new parents, and to help get their children off to a healthy start. Healthy Families America, a national initiative of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCCA), offers comprehensive support, through home visitation, to vulnerable parents. This voluntary program supports young families with “at-risk” children by providing weekly home visits by trained staff.
According to PCCA, this home visitation model promotes positive parenting, and early child development and health, thereby ultimately preventing child abuse, neglect and other negative outcomes.
This particular model was chosen as a cost-effective model for strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect. Created in 1992, the goal of Healthy Families Virginia was to reach every family expecting a child in the state. The network of Healthy Families sites worked together to create systems and structures to be able to reach out to all communities. “It is truly a collaborative effort,” said Johanna Schuchert, Healthy Families Virginia director at Prevent Child Abuse Virginia. There are now more than 36 Healthy Families sites, serving over 85 communities.
Healthy Families Virginia has several prominent supporters. Lisa Collis, the first lady of Virginia and honorary chair of Prevent Child Abuse Virginia, has been a strong advocate, making visits to all of the Healthy Families sites. Additionally, during testimony provided by Rep. Bobby Scott, Healthy Families was cited as a successful program to prevent violence.
With such strong supporters, why is Healthy Families Virginia at risk? The reason is fairly simple — Gov. Mark Warner inherited a $3.8 billion overall budget shortfall, including a $1.5 billion deficit (see story on page 2). With budget deficits quite commonplace across the country, Virginia, like many other states, faces the challenge of funding social services. With the slumping economy, residents are leaning more and more on counties, while county officials are warning that they must continue to cut social service programs.
Because prevention was not a high priority during the previous governor’s term, Healthy Families was being phased out. With the elimination of funding, a grassroots advocacy campaign, spearheaded by Prevent Child Abuse Virginia, began educating the new administration. With 23 new delegates in the House, this campaign is both timely and critical to the future of Healthy Families. The outcome was the allocation of $3.7 million for Healthy Families, approximately 80 percent of which consisted of federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) dollars.
This was great news for Healthy Families advocates, but there were drawbacks. In contrast to the previous allocation of general funds, the use of TANF dollars prevented the use of additional federal funds, such as Title IV-E funds, which are part of the Social Security Act for foster care prevention programs. Essentially, for every general-fund dollar, the states receive 50 cents in matching federal funds.
Advocates have shifted their focus to begin working on preserving general funds for FY04 to replace TANF dollars. Two factors were critical in prioritizing the allocation of general funds: the reauthorization of TANF, and the ability to solicit additional federal monies to increase total revenue for Healthy Families.
In addition, because of the state budget deficit, unused TANF dollars were already tapped, bordering on total depletion. The allocation of public monies — either state or local — would be critical to ensure qualification of matching federal funds. A decrease in general funds would mean the inability to leverage federal funds. For the sustainability of Healthy Families Virginia, the allocation of general funds is critical since the receipt of TANF dollars could actually result in a decrease in funding.
“There is no end to this uphill battle,” said George Drumwright, deputy county manager in Henrico County. “Budget cuts in Healthy Families in Virginia means compromised services for those in need of mental health services, children’s health, Medicaid, and transportation. We are at a loss for what needs to happen next.” More importantly, there has been an increase in reported child abuse and neglect, as well as an increase in the number of families seeking assistance in Virginia. It places the state in a bind, but more importantly, family services are compromised.
According to Schuchert, the bottom line is to ensure that Healthy Families is included in Warner’s budget. Without secure state funding, Healthy Families Virginia will confront devastating setbacks. With the looming budget cuts in December, an additional 15 percent cut is expected. Advocates and supporters continue to wait for the outcome in the coming months.
Freddie Mac has awarded a grant to NACo to promote Healthy Families. NACo has information on how Healthy Families can be implemented locally and examples of counties who have successfully implemented the program.
