Home Visiting and Homeless Families

The Home Visiting for Homeless Families Demonstration Project is piloting an innovative new approach to delivering high-quality home visiting services to homeless children and families in Chicago.

Findings from the project will inform the development of public policy recommendations to improve outcomes for homeless children and families in Chicago, across Illinois, and nationwide.

The goal for the Home Visiting for Homeless Families demonstration project is to improve the developmental trajectories for homeless children and to increase economic self-sufficiency of families, while also positioning our learnings for broader impact.

The project will pilot three approaches to enhance the ability of home visiting programs to engage and serve homeless families.

• One method will add one new home visitor with specialized training in working with homeless populations to a home visiting program.
• The second method will train all home visitors in several programs to provide services to one or two homeless families as part of their overall caseload.
• The third approach will provide training to a homeless service agency so that home visiting can be integrated into the current services being provided through that agency.

All approaches will include support for increased collaboration between home visitors and homeless service providers.

The project has developed a toolkit to support home visitors in engaging families experiencing homelessness.

To learn more or participate in this project contact Shawanda Jennings at sjennings@startearly.org