A total of 17 states are  involved in MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start.

MIHOPE RESEARCH ACTIVITY UPDATES

As of April 29, 2015, more than 3,900 participants have enrolled in MIHOPE.

Site recruitment is complete. The MIHOPE study will report on home visiting in 88 Early Head Start, Healthy Families America, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers programs operating in California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Additional years of follow-up added to MIHOPE. MIHOPE data collection with families has been extended past children’s 15th month, which was the original end point for following up with families. This is an exciting development, because it means that the study will learn how home visiting affects parent and child well-being beyond the infant and toddler years. This new phase of the study will include annual contact with families around the time each child is 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age. The study will include brief surveys of each child’s primary caregiver on such topics as child and parental health, parenting style, child development, and social services used. All families who enrolled in MIHOPE will be eligible to participate in the follow-up surveys; however, participation is voluntary. The new phase of the study will continue through 2022.

Many sites are reaching their study enrollment goals! Many MIHOPE sites are rapidly hitting their target enrollment numbers, so that they are spending fewer months recruiting families into the study than they originally expected. Some of these sites have continued to enroll even past their targeted numbers. Local programs’ efforts to reach the study’s goals for recruiting families are much appreciated!

More than 200 videos have been taken of home visits in MIHOPE sites. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, imagine the value of capturing a home visit in a video. The videos are a special form of qualitative data for the project, providing a unique perspective on the interactions between home visitors and the families they serve. The MIHOPE study team expects to capture about 400 visits on video over the course of the study.

Staff surveys and in-person interviews will continue in 2015. As part of the implementation study, MIHOPE team members are interviewing home visiting staff in person, and home visitors, supervisors, and program managers are also participating in on-line surveys. These data collection efforts help inform the study team about how local staff and families experience service delivery. Thank you to all the local staff members who have contributed information to these efforts — the time that you are spending with the study team will benefit future staff and families who are involved in home visiting.

MIHOPE-STRONG START RESEARCH ACTIVITY UPDATES

MIHOPE-Strong Start is off to a “strong start” enrolling study participants! The first MIHOPE-Strong Start sites began enrolling families in June 2014, and many MIHOPE sites have contributed to the study sample. The study team is pleased with the high consent rate (that is, a high number of eligible families are agreeing to participate in the study) and appreciates the dedication of staff who are involved in recruitment and intake activities at MIHOPE-Strong Start sites across the country.

There are currently 11 states enrolling families into MIHOPE-Strong Start. California, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington are actively enrolling families in MIHOPE-Strong Start. The study will also benefit from families in the MIHOPE study who meet the MIHOPE-Strong Start eligibility criteria, which are narrower than the MIHOPE criteria.

CONFERENCES and EVENTS

Managers from Early Head Start MIHOPE sites participated in a webinar on December 12, 2014, and attended a meeting in Arlington, VA, on March 17-18, 2015, convened by the Office of Head Start, to share information and support each other’s work with the study.

The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation – Strong Start Second Annual Report was recently released. Cheaper, Faster, Better: Are State Administrative Data the Answer?  details MIHOPE-Strong Start’s process of acquiring administrative data — specifically birth certificate and Medicaid data — from up to 20 states and from multiple agencies that collect and house these records.

In February 2015, federal MIHOPE/MIHOPE-Strong Start staff presented on the MIHOPE Report to Congress and the MIHOPE-Strong Start Second Annual Report to staff of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. In March 2015, ACF and HRSA staff provided a briefing on the MIECHV program generally and the MIHOPE Report to Congress to Congressional staff.

Join the MIHOPE research team at the Fifth National Summit on Quality in Home Visiting on May 7- 8, 2015, in Washington, DC, to hear more about the findings in the MIHOPE Report to Congress.