The following is a press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
WASHINGTON, DC — The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today announced over $3 million in new awards to six tribal entities for the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. Tribal MIECHV develops and strengthens tribal capacity to promote the health and well-being of pregnant women and families with children from birth to kindergarten entry in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The program now funds 53 grants supporting tribes, tribal consortia, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to implement voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs across 110 tribal communities.
“Make American Healthy Again means improving outcomes for vulnerable women and their young children,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. “We know when evidence-based home visiting models are faithfully implemented, we can accurately predict the positive outcomes pregnant women, children, and families will achieve. ACF is proud to expand home visiting to tribal communities to deliver on better health, well-being, and school readiness outcomes.”
The new awards are a part of the ongoing expansion of Tribal MIECHV since the Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act of 2022, which doubled the tribal set-aside from 3% to 6%. Funding has increased from $12 million in FY22 to $36 million in FY25 and will continue to increase to $48 million by FY27. The increase in the tribal set-aside will expand access to evidence-based home visiting services for women and children in Indian Country. Tribal home visiting programs consistently deliver on high rates of adult caregiver screenings for depression, substance abuse, domestic violence, and economic strain, along with a high percentage of completed well-visits for enrolled children. In FY 2024, Tribal MIECHV grant recipients served 3,719 parents and children across 1,779 households, with 94% of families having received all recommended home visits.
The six tribal entities that received new awards will either expand existing services or build new capacity to home visiting services to AI/AN families in communities where services do not currently exist. New grant recipients include:
| Grant Recipient | State | Amount |
| Owens Valley Career Development Center | CA | $663,154 |
| The Chickasaw Nation (existing grant recipient serving a new community) | OK | $722,441 |
| Tule River Indian Health Center, Inc. | CA | $600,000 |
| Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | OK | $331,786 |
| Native American Community Services of Erie & Niagara Co. Inc | NY | $433,295
|
| Kodiak Area Native Association | AK | $448,278 |
| Total | $3,198,954 |
“Home visiting provides families with the support they need to help their children thrive,” said Dr. Laurie Todd-Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development. “By meeting families where they are with evidence-based services, we invest in stronger families, healthier children, and the power of parents to shape their children’s future.”
Tribal MIECHV supports cooperative agreements between ACF and tribal entities. The first year of grant funding requires a planning process where grant recipients conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment and develop implementation strategies to deliver evidence-based home visiting services. Once the strategies are approved, grant recipients implement home visiting services during years 2-5, collect and report data on legislatively-mandated benchmark performance measures, engage in continuous quality improvement activities using the data they collect, and build partnerships with early care and education, health, nutrition, and human services providers to strengthen systems supporting young children and their families in tribal communities.
The Tribal MIECHV program is part of the broader MIECHV program that supports implementing evidence-based home visiting models in states, territories, and additional tribal communities. Under the MIECHV program, grant recipients are required to implement evidence-based home visiting models and promising approaches. Evidence-based models are identified through a systematic review, Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness, that determines whether models meet legislative criteria for evidence of effectiveness.
For more information about the Tribal Home Visiting program, visit: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/tribal/tribal-home-visiting.
