Assistance program
Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
$163.5 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Administration for Children and Families, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements
- CFDA number
- 93.872
- What it does
- The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Tribal MIECHV) is administered by The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD), in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Assistance is available to: 1) eligible Tribes (or consortia of Tribes), 2) Tribal Organizations, and 3) Urban Indian Organizations, to strengthen and improve maternal and child health programs, improve service coordination for at-risk communities, and identify and provide comprehensive evidence-based home visiting services to families who reside in at-risk communities through implementing evidence-based home visiting. The goals of the Tribal MIECHV program are to: 1) support the development of happy, healthy, and successful American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families through a coordinated home visiting strategy that addresses critical maternal and child health, development, early learning, family support, and child abuse and neglect prevention needs; 2) implement high-quality, culturally-relevant, evidence-based home visiting programs in AIAN communities; 3) expand the evidence base around home visiting interventions with Native populations; and 4) support and strengthen cooperation and coordination and promote linkages among various early childhood programs, resulting in coordinated, comprehensive early childhood systems. The ACF, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), is administering Tribal Research Center for Early Childhood Development and Systems (TRCECS). The TRCECS provides leadership and collaboration to promote excellence in community-based participatory research and evaluation of ACF early childhood initiatives that serve tribal communities. The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) (P.L. 117-2) dedicated funds for entities that are conducting a MIECHV program as of the date of enactment of the legislation and can be used for provision of home visiting services (including virtual visits), and training staff in conducting virtual home visits, and increase the number of at-risk families receiving home visiting services during the pandemic and ensure that current and additional families are able to obtain basic necessities.