Benefits of the MIECHV program are funded by grants, don't cost county, help residents
Letter to the Editor,
There are some misunderstandings regarding the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) grant as described in the Dec. 7 Western News article.
The program is administered at the federal level by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in collaboration with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), both agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The MIECHV program requires collaboration and partnership at the federal, state and community levels to improve health and development outcomes for at-risk children through voluntary evidence-based home-visiting programs.
The funding referred to in the article was actually for three grants successfully applied for by Public Health Nurse Micki Carvey.
The first two grants were for the Lincoln County Best Beginnings Planning Council to bring together and improve communication and partnerships among early-childhood programs and stakeholders, including identifying the problems facing families of young children in our county, creating a strategic plan for addressing those problems then begin to address the needs of our community and improve the system of early childhood services by working together much in a funding neutral manner.
The third grant was for a Home Visiting Grant for the start-up year of the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program.
The grant does not require a match of any county funds and, provided the commissioners are willing to renew the contract each year, is expected to last until September 2015.
If the commissioners are not willing to sign the contracts other counties will probably get the funds and their children and families will benefit while ours will not.
We are already seeing great success in the children and families we are serving, and we hope the commissioners recognize this as a chance to improve our Lincoln County children’s success in school and, hence, in life.
— Barbara Guthneck, Program Manager
Parents as
Teachers Program