Inventory of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) for Healthy Start Programs
Evidence-based practices include actions, activities, strategies, or approaches that improve the health of women, before, during, and after pregnancy in order to improve birth outcomes and give infants up to age two years a healthy start. Also included in the collection are informational materials and tools that make it easier to implement evidence-based practices. To search by title, use the main search box located at the top of this page.
This toolkit presents a compilation of resources that highlight the challenges and key issues associated with launching and sustaining a successful fatherhood program. It covers topics such as: building an effective fatherhood program,effectively engaging fathers, cultivating community partners, recruiting and training staff, serving fathers with specific barriers, and promoting sustainability. The toolkit provides tips and suggestions from experienced practitioners, activities for use with fathers in one-to-one or group sessions, tools from model programs to use and share with fathers, and other helpful resources.
Topics:
Intimate Partner Violence Partner Involvement Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement
Evidence Rating:
II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.
This prevention resource guide offers information, strategies, and resources to support community service providers as they work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child maltreatment and promote social and emotional well-being. The guide focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths and promote optimal child and youth development. Information about protective factors is augmented with tools and strategies that help providers, advocates and policymakers integrate the factors into community programs and systems. The guide includes tip sheets for parents in English and Spanish on a range of parenting and child development topics.
Topics:
Intimate Partner Violence Life Course Model Parenting Education Partner Involvement Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Intimate Partner Violence
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Family Spirit is an evidence-based early childhood home-visiting program designed for and by American Indian communities. Family Spirit combines the use of paraprofessionals from the community as home visitors and a culturally focused, strengths-based curriculum as a core strategy to support young families. From pregnancy through the child’s 3rd birthday, parents gain knowledge and skills to promote healthy development and positive lifestyles for themselves and their children. Family Spirit addresses intergenerational behavioral health problems, optimizes local cultural assets, and overcomes deficits in the professional health care workforce in low resource communities. Evidence from three randomized controlled trials has documented important results including: increased parenting knowledge and involvement; decreased maternal depression; increased home safety; decreased emotional and behavioral problems of mothers; and decreased emotional and behavioral problems of children. The Family Spirit curriculum modules cover: Prenatal Care, Infant Care, Your Growing Child, Toddler Care, My Family and Me, and Healthy Living.
Topics:
Alcohol/Drug Services Breastfeeding Depression Home Visiting Parenting Education Partner Involvement Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Improve Women's Health Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening Reproductive Life Plan Safe Sleep Smoking Abstinence Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status: Developmental Milestones (PEDS:DM) is a validated screening and surveillance tool that elicits parents’ report on a child’s skills and behavior. Six to eight questions per visit are used to assess fine motor, gross motor, expressive language, receptive language, self-help, and socio-emotional skills. The survey is designed for children at any age from 0 to 8 and takes about 5 minutes to complete and one minute to score.
Topics:
Parenting Education Risk Assessment Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Well Child Visits
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) is a ten-question validated surveillance and screening tool designed to elicit parents’ concerns about their child’s development, behavior, and mental health. It takes about 5 minutes for parents to complete and 1-2 minutes to score. The screen can be used to indicate whether reassurance, advice, watchful waiting, further screening, or referral are called for in a child between ages 0 and 8.
Topics:
Parenting Education Risk Assessment Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Well Child Visits
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Touchpoints approach offers healthcare providers and early education professionals a framework to build better partnerships with families around mutual strengths-based caregiving and parent engagement, all of which benefit child outcomes. Rooted in child social, emotional and behavioral development, Touchpoints seeks to improve parent-provider relationships, improve provider relationships with each other, enhance parent-infant relationships, moderate parental stress, normalize parent’s perceptions of their child’s behavior, increase well-child care adherence, improve infant developmental outcomes, improve maternal mental health indicators, and encourage longer breastfeeding. A variety of professional tools, training activities and learning communities are offered for providers.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Other Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Nurturing Parenting Programs are a family-centered trauma-informed initiative designed to build nurturing parenting skills as an alternative to abusive and neglecting parenting and child-rearing practices. The long term goals are to prevent recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.
Lessons can be delivered in home setting, group setting, or combination. Nurturing Parents offer targeted programs for prenatal families, parents of babies and toddlers, parents of older children, Spanish speaking parents, parents of children with health challenges, teen parents, military parents, parents in substance abuse treatment and recovery, and more.
Topics:
Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Intimate Partner Violence
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
PAT aims to increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children’s school readiness and school success. The PAT model consists of one-on-one home visits, group connections/meetings, health and developmental screenings for children, and a resource network for parents. Program lasts for at least two years, beginning as early as pregnancy and ending at the child’s 3rd birthday or at kindergarten entry.
Topics:
Home Visiting Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Reading to Child Daily Well Child Visits
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
The Nurse Family Partnership program provides home visits by registered nurses to first-time mothers, beginning during pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday. The program aims to: improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors; improve child health, development, and safety by promoting competent caregiving; and enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment. Secondary goals include providing links with needed health and social services, and promoting supportive social relationships.
Topics:
Home Visiting Parenting Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Improve Women's Health
Benchmarks:
Reproductive Life Plan
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
