Home visitors do some of the most important work in Head Start, Early Head Start, and all of early childhood education, but they are often overlooked. Home visitors go out and knock on doors and get to know families in a unique way. They focus on building relationships, and that makes a big difference in the lives of children and families.

Home Visiting Resources

The more confident you are as a home visitor, the better you are serving families. NHSA and the Office of Head Start have resources that help home visitors build that confidence and lead with empathy.

• Home Visiting and Support for Pregnant Women Issue Brief: Early Head Start home visiting provides services in the home to vulnerable children and families, fostering strong parent-child relationships. Learn more about the program and its impacts.
• ECLKC Home Visiting Series: This resource, which may be helpful especially for new home visitors, emphasizes the importance of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes in order to understand them. It talks about having a, “how can I support” mindset iInstead of a, “how can I fix your problem?” mindset.
• ECLCK Home Vistor’s Online Handbook: This resource includes everything needed to understand the many facets of home vistor work, from defining the roles of a Home Visitor to technology considerations.
• Data Collection Tool: Collecting and using data is important for anyone who works in Head Start, home visitors included. This new NHSA resource for collecting home visiting data is a way we get better at both serving individual children and families and improving the home visiting process overall.

Love Note

March is National Social Workers Month. So, our Love Note, of course, goes to Head Start’s amazing social workers—those home visitors included!

In Case you Didn’t Know

March is also National Reading Month—a great time to bring the importance of reading to your children, staff, and parents. Parents who read have children who read, so in addition to supporting the literacy of your children, get parents involved! As we celebrate literacy all month long, think about how you embed it in your children’s daily lives.