Agenda, Scope, and Goals

MIHOPE will provide federal and state policymakers, service providers, and other interested parties with valuable information about whether and how home visiting programs improve outcomes for children and families.

MIHOPE will enroll approximately 4,300 at-risk families who are expecting a baby or have an infant up to 6 months old. The study includes 88 program sites in 12 states nationwide. MIHOPE includes four evidence-based home visiting models: Early Head Start - Home Based Program Option, Healthy Families America, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers.

MIHOPE has a number of aims. It will:

• Assess the effects of the programs on child and parent outcomes, including prenatal, maternal, and newborn health; child health and development; parenting skills; school readiness and academic achievement; crime and domestic violence; family economic self-sufficiency; and referrals and service coordination

• Examine how the program models operate in their local and state contexts, linking implementation strategies to program impacts to inform the field about the types of program features or strategies that might lead to greater impacts on families

• Assess the potential of the programs to affect the health care system and to reduce costs

Design, Sites, and Data Sources

MIHOPE uses a rigorous study design. The study includes three components:

• An analysis of the state needs assessments that were provided in the state MIECHV applications

• An effectiveness study that incorporates random assignment and an implementation study, which together will investigate how the program models operate in their local and state contexts, describe the families who participate, and examine health disparities and outcomes

• An economic analysis that will estimate the financial costs of operating the programs

Data will be collected through a variety of means, including surveys, reviews of program policies, administrative records, interviews with state administrators, videotaped observations of selected home visits, web-based surveys of local staffs, and web-based activity logs kept by home visitors and supervisors.

The study includes 88 program sites in 12 states nationwide: California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin. In January 2015 early findings were released in the MIHOPE Report to Congress.