The Enhanced Home Visiting Pilot Project

The Enhanced Home Visiting Pilot Project: How Early Head Start programs are reaching out to kith and kin caregivers: Final interim report

In summer 2004, the Head Start Bureau funded 24 Early Head Start programs to implement the Enhanced Home Visiting Pilot Project, an initiative designed to support the quality of care that kith and kin caregivers provide to infants and toddlers enrolled in home-based Early Head Start programs. Pilot sites provide home visits to caregivers, organize group training and support group events, and give or lend materials and equipment. In addition, the pilot sites must collaborate with community partners in their work with caregivers.

This interim report describes the early implementation experiences of the pilot projects. It is based primarily on site visits to participating programs after approximately one year of pilot operation, as well as information collected by programs on the characteristics of children, families, and caregivers enrolled in the pilot. It describes programs’ initial designs for their pilot projects, as well as pilot staffing and the community partners that programs selected. It also examines key characteristics of children, families, and caregivers enrolled in the pilot; describes programs’ methods for recruiting pilot participants and the services the pilot sites provide; and examines the early implementation successes and challenges programs experienced.