Watch a Home Visit

What is home visiting? This photo and audio tour of a visit between 24-year-old new mom Astiare Logan; her son, Andrew; and their home visitor, Laura, provides an intimate glimpse into these voluntary parent mentoring programs.

Take the tour.

Help in the Home

Taking responsibility for an infant can prove challenging for even the most prepared of families.

For new moms like Astiare, who is raising her son alone, getting extra support is critical. High-quality home visitation programs match parents with trained professionals—often a social worker or nurse— to provide information and mentoring during pregnancy and throughout their child's first three years.

Astiare volunteered to receive home visiting support when she was homeless and seven months pregnant. Since then, she has worked one-on-one with home visitors to understand Andrew's developmental milestones and manage her concerns. The trusting relationship Astiare built with her home visitor helped her develop confidence as a mother and also aided her in finding a place to live.

A Brighter Future for Families and Society

Parents who partner with home visitors learn how to seek prenatal care, find positive solutions to stressful circumstances, develop healthy parent-child interactions and set goals for the future that improve families' self-sufficiency.

For states, home visiting is a powerful prevention-oriented social service that can lead to substantial savings for taxpayers. Quality home visiting helps reduce unwanted social outcomes such as child abuse and neglect, school failure, poverty, unemployment and crime.

Home Visiting Policy in the States

States invested more than $1.4 billion in voluntary home visiting programs in FY2009-2010. Learn more about your state's home visiting investments and strategies—and how they compare to others—by visiting the Pew Home Visiting Inventory.