Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV)
FFND's Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) is a federal grant program supporting home visiting efforts in North Dakota.
What is home visiting?
Example services include:
Providing useful information on child development
Sharing safety tips for children
Helping families identify their baby's needs (or child's needs) and find appropriate resources
Supporting family members in the home while they tend to their child's needs or their own needs
Helping families get a medical provider
Linking families with resources for child care and other support, as needed
Home visiting uses a two-generation approach to improve the quality of life for families and future generations. At the same time the home visitor is providing information about child development and positive parenting, they can help parents access resources to finish school, procure steady employment, find stable housing, and more. Home visitors help parents plant seeds of success that will benefit their families for years to come.
Where are the current MIECHV program sites?
We currently have two MIECHV-funded sites. The first serves Rolette County, including the Turtle Mountain reservation, using the Parents as Teachers model; the second serves Burleigh, Morton, Mercer, Oliver, Grant, and Sioux Counties using the Nurse-Family Partnership model.
The North Dakota Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Project is made possible through funding from the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program in the Department of Health Resources and Services Administration.
CDC High Obesity Project: Promoting Healthy Outcomes Through Indigenous Food Systems
A project of MIECHV Innovation, Promoting Healthy Outcomes through Indigenous Food Systems seeks to improve access to healthy food and health-promoting environments using community engagement and culture as overarching strategies to reduce health disparities. The project utilizes strategies such as assets-based and community-based participatory approaches, to facilitate change by bringing communities together and honoring existing knowledge, skills and experiences. Partners and community coalitions engage to improve access to healthy and traditional food systems and increase opportunities for culturally-informed physical activity.
In North Dakota, Rolette and Sioux counties have adult obesity rates of 40.9% and 42.6% respectively.
This work has been built upon the trauma informed systems and self-healing community framework from the MIECHV Innovation project. Those key concepts help for the foundation to explore the impact that historical trauma has had on food systems and food sovereignty.
Resources
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Needs Assessment
Home Visiting in North Dakota
Partners
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s High Obesity Program (CDC HOP) funded North Dakota State University (NDSU) for the implementation of evidence-based strategies guided by community expertise to increase access to healthy foods and physical activity in counties with an adult obesity rate of more than 40%. PCAND is subcontracted by North Dakota State University to provide key project support by serving as a liaison with leadership and stakeholders in the target communities in Sioux County and Rolette County. We provide technical assistance and subject matter expertise on community engagement, health promotion and food sovereignty in relation to tribal systems.
The five-year project, Promoting Healthy Outcomes through Indigenous Food Systems, leverages partnerships between NDSU, NDSU Extension, Families Flourish ND (FFND), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST), Tribal Nations Research Group (TNRG) and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI).
Our home visiting programs are supported with HRSA funds.