OpportunityTitle: Affordable Care Act - Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Research Network
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Only public or nonprofit institutions of higher learning and public or private nonprofit agencies engaged in research or in programs relating to maternal and child health and/or services for children with special health care needs may apply for grants contracts or cooperative agreements for research in maternal and child health services or in services for children with special health care needs.   Applicants must have significant experience with research related to home visiting programs for mothers, infants, and young children.  Applications that fail to show such experience will not be considered.   Organizations directly involved in the operation of home visiting programs are not eligible to apply.
Description: The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to support the creation of an interdisciplinary, multicenter research forum for scientific collaboration and infrastructure building related to home visiting research that is designed to improve life outcomes among mothers, infants, and young children. The work of this Network will complement the ongoing research and evaluation activities occurring both within the MIECHV program and in the research field broadly, and will have the following goals: o Develop a national research agenda designed to improve the implementation and effectiveness of maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting programs through: (a) research on the components of effective interventions, and (b) research targeted to improving the delivery of home visiting services; this national research agenda will also be used to actively guide the Network&apos;s implementation of research studies through both MCHB and external funding sources; o Advance the methods of studying the implementation and effectiveness of home visiting programs; o Develop approaches to data sharing that will expedite the translation of research results into knowledge, products, and procedures; o Disseminate critical information and foster continued education activities on its research findings to inform researchers, professionals, policy makers, other stakeholders in the home visiting field, and the public; o Support the professional development of emerging researchers to conduct research on home visiting through: fostering mentoring relationships between faculty members and emerging researchers; and encouraging active communication, networking, and collaboration among researchers; and Types of relevant activities conducted by the Network may include but are not limited to: o Identifying effective approaches and/or testing the effectiveness of approaches to the implementation of evidence-based home visiting programs within communities; o Identifying gaps in necessary program enhancements and/or testing the efficacy of enhancements to evidence-based home visiting programs, including but not limited to: culturally appropriate adaptations; enhancements to address intimate-partner violence, substance abuse, and parental health and wellbeing; and/or enhancements related to improving the participant outcomes or benchmark domains specified in the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting legislation; o Investigating mechanisms of change within program models or implementation systems in order to identify which program components work under which circumstances for which participants; o Exploring the capacity of existing home visiting models and service systems to meet the unique developmental needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents; o Determining effective program features that can improve participant recruitment/ retention, including father engagement; o Developing approaches to screening children and families for variables highlighted as priority risk areas that can be used in conjunction with home visiting models; o Identifying and evaluating community-based partnerships that enhance a program&apos;s responsiveness to community needs; o Evaluating and recommending coordinated approaches that support healthy development by fostering collaborations across diverse agencies that serve mothers and young children, including but not limited to early childhood education settings, health care providers, and local programs; o Conducting cost-benefit analyses of home visiting programs; and o Fostering workforce development, specifically: effective techniques for reflective supervision; effective methods of training and continuing education for home visitors; recruitment and retention of effective home visitors; effective support for home visitor mental health; and other relevant topics. The activities described above may be supported in various ways, including but not limited to: o Convening in-person, video, and teleconference meetings of network members and members of the public; and o Disseminating information through conference presentations, publications, webinars, and websites.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Contact HRSA Call Center at 877-Go4-HRSA/877-464-4772 or email
GrantorContactText: CallCenter@HRSA.GOV&lt;br/&gt;CallCenter@HRSA.GOV&lt;br/&gt;