JBA Presents at the Seventh National Summit on Quality in Home Visiting Programs

Several members of the JBA team presented their work at the Seventh National Summit on Quality in Home Visiting Programs in Washington, DC, earlier this winter. The Ounce of Prevention Fund hosts the annual event as part of its mission to ensure that all children—particularly those born into poverty—have quality early childhood experiences in the crucial first 5 years of life.

The 2018 summit, held January 31 to February 2, was funded by the Heising-Simons and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations. Researchers, advocates, policy makers, and practitioners came together at the Grand Hyatt Washington to address key issues in the field and share best practices. 

JBA was well represented across the 3-day agenda, with staff sharing updates from several home visiting projects.

• Kate Lyon, vice president of JBA’s Tribal Evaluation practice, and Tess Abrahamson-Richards presented findings from the Multisite Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting.
• Julie Leis and Mariel Sparr shared state efforts to promote positive birth outcomes collected through the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start (MIHOPE-Strong Start).
• Executive vice president Jill Filene and Allison Meisch provided a first look at a new data supplement prepared by the National Home Visiting Resource Center (NHVRC). Earlier in the summit, several of their NHVRC colleagues shared state-level home visiting information during an evening poster session.
• Jill Filene participated in a workshop on “Assessing Visitors’ Communication Styles Through Observation to Promote Precision Home Visiting.”

In the hours leading up to the summit, the Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative (HARC) held its 2018 Collaborative Science of Home Visiting Meeting. Julie Leis spoke at the HARC event as part of a session on variations in home visiting effectiveness across subgroups.