Home visiting in the news. And the impact of Healthy Families America.

We want to share a recent OP-ED with you from The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof titled "When Even the Starting Line Is Out Of Reach." In the piece, Kristof writes about the benefits of home visiting, including the excerpt we pasted below. We would also like to draw your attention to a series of briefs we wrote on the impact of Prevent Child Abuse America's home visiting program Healthy Families America, which can be located on our website here. And we would like to hear your thoughts on the Kristof piece, the Healthy Families America briefs, and how the availability of home visiting might impact the neighborhoods and communities you live in. Thanks.

"Let’s push for home visitation programs that encourage parents to speak to children and read to them; many low-income homes don’t have a single kid’s book. We also need initiatives to reduce exposure to lead and other toxins. Finally, how about screenings for problems like hearing and visual impairment — all followed by a good prekindergarten.

Rigorous evidence suggests that these kinds of interventions save money because the costs of failure are so great. Yet most kids don’t get such help."