Nurture the Next Expanding Evidence-Based Home Visiting Services to Five New Counties.

Poverty and health risks that lead to poverty are generational—passed down from parents to their children from one generation to the next. Evidence-based home visiting (EBHV) helps to break this cycle by giving children in low-income homes a better chance to succeed in life, and starting next year, more Tennessee families will be eligible for this life-changing program.

Our organization, Nurture the Next, is one of a handful of EBHV providers in Tennessee that was recently awarded a grant from surplus federal funds intended to help lift families out of poverty. Tennessee has accrued $741 million of unused funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Gov. Bill Lee, with approval from the Finance Committee Chairs of the Tennessee General Assembly, recently allocated $14 million annually from the surplus to the Tennessee Department of Health to expand access to EBHV across the state. Nurture the Next will receive $6 million over three years from this allocation, adding services in Rutherford, Wilson, Bledsoe, Fentress and Meigs counties.  

We are extremely grateful to our state’s leadership for recognizing the powerful impact of home visiting, and using a portion of the TANF surplus funds to increase the number of safe and healthy households for children in Tennessee. We currently offer home visiting services in 15 Tennessee counties with this expansion bringing the total to 20. 

The outcomes of home visiting are immediate and proven, such as keeping kids out of foster care, ensuring children have access to proper medical care, and helping families become self-sufficient. With the economic hardship brought on by the pandemic that has also cutoff many families from a number of social supports, the need for our services has never been greater. 

Not having enough to eat, not having a consistent space to call home or not having access to medical care are just some of the major stresses experienced by those living in poverty. These challenges can be overwhelming for an adult, but imagine what they’re like to experience as a child, when you have no ability to control any of these factors. Living in poverty increases the likelihood that children will experience toxic stress—a serious condition that impedes their development and ability to learn. EBHV is proven to reduce the risks of toxic stress on children, identified as a key prevention strategy by the CDC. 

There are economic benefits as well. Research shows that taxpayers save up to $5.70 for every $1 invested in EBHV programs. This is accomplished by reducing dependency on and need for other social services, including child protection, special education, and interactions with the criminal justice system. We do this by equipping parents with the skills and knowledge to create safe, stable and nurturing environments for their children. Children that are raised in stable families do better academically, are shown to be more financially successful and contribute more to society. 

There are many reasons to look forward to 2021, but for us here at Nurture the Next, the opportunity to see more of Tennessee’s children thriving in safe, stable environments is a big one.