Promising practices in the integration of the Nurse Family Partnership Program into a Local County Early Childhood Services System

Local public health departments implement the core functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance. The Kane County Health Department through its All Our Kids (AOK) Birth-to-Five Early Childhood Network conducts periodic assessment of early childhood needs, stimulates local policy development based on strategic plan implementation, and assures a robust array of early childhood services to meet the needs of young children in Kane County. Integration of the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) Program, known locally as Kane Kares NFP, into the early childhood service system in Kane County is essential to assuring evidence-based outcomes and a continuum of services for young children. Delivered by health department public health nurses, Kane Kares NFP, is fully integrated with a broad-based maternal-child health tracking and case management program, a Teen Parent Service program to support high school graduation ,and a network of other home visitation programs such as Healthy Families, Early Head Start, and Parents as Teachers. Health Department leadership further integrates Kane Kares NFP into the county early childhood service system as it convenes a home visitation collaborative which implements system projects such as 1) uses a single risk criteria screening tool, 2) uses a single home visitation brochure to market all the home visiting programs to referral sources, 3) implements joint training sessions for staff of all the programs on topics of shared interest such as developmental screening, child safety, and domestic violence and 4) implements a component of the AOK strategic plan with a focus on maternal-child health disparities.