Where we’ve been:
Across St. Louis and the United States, home visiting has been increasingly recognized as an effective approach for improving factors related to maternal and child health. Home visiting programs have shown benefits that include new mothers’ perinatal and postpartum behavioral health, healthy child development, and a reduction in infant mortality. St. Louis has not, however, been able to fully capitalize on the positive impacts of home visiting due to multiple barriers that have prevented it from scaling and leveraging its wide array of programs and providers. In 2018, FLOURISH St. Louis – a regional initiative for healthy babies and families powered by Generate Health – partnered with the Missouri Foundation for Health to assess the state of St. Louis’ home visitation programs and recommended large-scale systems improvements. Among its recommendations was the formation of The St. Louis Home Visiting Collaborative (HVC), a network of home visiting providers and consumers working together to systematically coordinate and strengthen the region’s delivery of services.
Modeled after Promise 1000 in Kansas City, St. Louis’ Collaborative seeks to mobilize the region’s collective capacity to address and resolve issues of infant mortality, child abuse and neglect, school readiness, and persistent racial disparities in maternal, child, and family health outcomes. Its partners have agreed to:
- Build the infrastructure needed to extend and streamline home visiting services so that they reach more families effectively and efficiently;
- Increase coordination among stakeholders at all levels to better serve families and support home visiting providers; and
- Ensure that providers are prepared to meaningfully and respectfully engage with families so that together, they create safe, supportive, and healthy environments.
So far, the collaborative has conducted five convenings, as well as several smaller work group sessions.
Where we are now:
The collaborative has many moving parts. The Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) is made up of a group of parents that have received or are currently receiving home visiting services, and plays an integral role in informing the steering committee and work groups. The CAB meets monthly to support one another and the development of the collaborative.
The Steering Committee is comprised of 10 providers and two community members. The collaborative’s work groups consist of both providers and consumers and focus on (a) coordinated intake and referral, (b) shared data and outcomes, and (c) training and efficacy.
The collaborative’s Quarterly Convenings are the largest meetings that inform community, providers, and stakeholders that are not a part of the smaller workgroups to provide overall updates of the collaborative.
The work of the collaborative is funded through the Children’s Trust Fund
Where we’re going:
In 2021, Generate Health and partners have begun bridging the Perinatal Behavioral Health Initiative (PBHI), safe sleep, and the Home Visitation Collaborative in order to close existing gaps in service delivery. This effort, which has been named the Bloom Network, will provide a coordinated service delivery network designed to meet the needs and perspectives of Black pregnant and parenting families, while using a racial equity lens. With partner and community input, we will utilize the next year to build a system that is easily accessible so all families can receive the wraparound services they need. Stay tuned for updates about the Bloom Network, coming soon!
To learn more about the Home Visitation Collaborative, the Bloom Network, or how you can get involved, please reach out to Carie Mellenthin at cmellenthin@generatehealthstl.org or Aja Welch at awelch@generatehealthstl.org.