Digital Advocacy Day is April 27! Reach out to your member of Congress and use your voice to support our children and families.
Join us, alongside our partners nationwide, in contacting lawmakers to urge them to act now to reauthorize and increase funding for the bipartisan Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. Your members of Congress need to hear from you!
The MIECHV program is a federal grant to states, territories, and Tribes that supports evidence-based home visiting for families and children from prenatal period through kindergarten entry. While the program’s ability to impact maternal and child health outcomes is clear, the current funding level limits its ability to reach the children and families who need it most. Only 150,000 of the 18 million current and expectant parents who could benefit from the program receive services. To bring the power of home visiting to more families and promote improved maternal health outcomes, we need Congress to reauthorize and increase funding. Unfortunately, the law that authorizes the MIECHV program will expire in September 2022, so we need your voice now more than ever.
Specifically, we’re requesting that Congress:
- Increase MIECHV funding over the next five years to reach more families and better support the workforce
- Double the tribal set-aside within MIECHV from 3% to 6%
- Continue to allow virtual home visiting with model fidelity as an option for service delivery
This crucial investment in our children and families will support resources at the state and community level that reduce challenges and stressors on parents. Therefore, we have the extraordinary opportunity to educate lawmakers about evidence-based home visiting programs such as Healthy Families America, spread the word about vital policy change, and encourage action on issues that increase positive childhood experiences and prevent child abuse and neglect.
This Digital Advocacy Day, get involved by emailing, tweeting, posting on social media, and/or calling your senators and representatives. For more resources, such as key messages, tweets, and graphics to help you communicate with your representative easily and effectively, please click here. If you need any additional support, please contact the policy team at Prevent Child Abuse America at pcaapolicyteam@preventchildabuse.org.
Remember – advocate for children and families where you live. Make your voice heard by contacting your elected officials on April 27th. Together, we can prevent childhood abuse, America…because childhood lasts a lifetime.
