William Penn Foundation and National Nurse-Led Care Consortium Announce $5.4M Grant to Connect Philadelphia Families Enrolled in Home Visiting Programs to Emergency Funds and Free Legal Services

Trained professionals who make home visits to support families with young children will have access to financial and legal resources to address clients’ urgent needs

PHILADELPHIA (September 12, 2022) – The William Penn Foundation awarded a $5.4 million grant to the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) to expand its Family Support Fund and its Nursing-Legal Partnership, which provide critical financial and legal support to Philadelphians enrolled in NNCC’s home visiting programs for families with young children. This significant grant enables NNCC to collaborate with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the providers of over a dozen other evidence-based and evidence-informed home visiting programs to expand the financial and legal resources to 2,100 more Philadelphia families with young children over the next two years – connecting approximately 1,500 families with legal support and 600 with funds to support urgent needs that cannot be met with other funding sources.

NNCC’s work to expand the Family Support Fund and Nursing-Legal Partnership to more home visiting programs in Philadelphia is known as the Family Advocacy and Integrated Resources (FAIR) Project. NNCC, a subsidiary of Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), is a nonprofit organization working to strengthen community health. NNCC operates the Philadelphia Nurse-Family Partnership, a home visiting program serving low-income first-time parents from pregnancy through age two, and the Mabel Morris Family Program, serving parents who are raising children under age five.

Home visiting programs range in focus from prenatal health to infant care, early learning, positive parenting, or other areas of family and child well-being. They are united by a strategy to meet families where they are. Professionals, such as nurses or early learning experts, visit families at home and build a trusting relationship over time during the earliest years of a child’s life. About 2,500 Philadelphia families participate each year in over a dozen evidence-based or evidence-informed, voluntary home visiting programs operated by organizations across the city.

Because of their frequent visits and trusted role in a family’s life, home visitors are uniquely aware of a family’s particular circumstances, strengths, and challenges. NNCC designed the Family Support Fund to help home visitors provide critical financial support to families in the form of low-barrier, rapid response grants to cover necessities related to the health and safety of families, such as housing, utilities, food, and beds.

The Nursing-Legal Partnership, which NNCC has offered to participants of its two home visiting programs since 2016, helps to identify and resolve a wide variety of legal issues faced by families, including helping participants access unemployment benefits or obtain or retain nutrition benefits, and preventing clients’ evictions and supporting them in other housing related issues. 

The William Penn Foundation supports Philadelphia children’s early learning – concentrating on the years between birth and age eight – including funding for resources and programs that help families engage in early learning opportunities at home with children. Among many other investments supporting early childhood in Philadelphia, the Foundation supports home visiting, investing more than $7 million since 2016 to help programs improve quality, support staff development, and reach more families. Home visiting has also received increasing public support at the local, state, and federal levels. 

“Home visiting professionals already have an incredible impact on families’ lives, and by expanding these resources developed by the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and their partners, more home visitors in Philadelphia will have access to tools that strengthen their ability to help families succeed and thrive,” said Jennifer Stavrakos, Interim Director of the Great Learning Program at the William Penn Foundation.

“Legal issues and unexpected financial needs can have an outsize impact on family stability and safety, especially during pregnancy and early childhood,” said NNCC Executive Director Sarah Hexem Hubbard. “When we’re able to connect families to personalized resources to resolve these issues in real time, they are better positioned to experience the benefits that evidence-based home visiting has to offer.”

With the support of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Maternal, Child, and Family Health Division, a stakeholder group representing over a dozen evidence-based home visiting programs has convened since 2018 to build a cohesive home visiting system in Philadelphia. For example, they collaborated on Philly Families CAN, a one-stop-shop launched in 2020 for families to connect to the best-fit home visiting program for them.

“Philadelphia has many committed community organizations providing maternal and child home visiting services,” said Stacey Kallem, Director of Maternal, Child, and Family Health at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. “Our city is unique because these organizations have a strong history of working together to improve the home visiting sector and have launched innovative initiatives such as Philly Families CAN. We are excited for the next chapter of collaboration through the FAIR Project.”

This stakeholder group has been influential in laying the groundwork for the FAIR Project, which will benefit from the strong network and communication among home visiting programs in Philadelphia.

The Family Support Fund and Nursing-Legal Partnership are described in more detail below.

Family Support Fund

With the expansion of the Family Support Fund to over a dozen home visiting programs in Philadelphia, home visitors will connect approximately 600 families with funds to support urgent needs that cannot be met with other funding sources. NNCC established the Family Support Fund in May 2020 and distributed $47,000 in grants to 72 NNCC families in the fund’s first year for the purchase of necessities such as beds, cribs, mattresses, air conditioners, and essential appliances, as well as housing needs, including rent and mortgage assistance and temporary housing for families experiencing interpersonal violence.

Nursing-Legal Partnership

With the expansion of the Nursing-Legal Partnership to over a dozen home visiting programs in Philadelphia, home visitors will connect approximately 1,500 families with legal support over the next two years. The Nursing-Legal Partnership has resolved more than 2,100 legal issues among more than 700 NNCC home visiting participants since 2016, including helping participants access unemployment benefits, obtain or retain nutrition benefits, prevent or delay evictions, and connecting families to rental assistance.

A team of lawyers from the Health, Education and Legal assistance Project: A Medical-Legal Partnership at Widener University Delaware Law School (HELP: MLP) works hand-in-hand with home visitors who educate and support new parents. The interdisciplinary team of lawyers and home visitors works to ensure that pregnant women and mothers have the opportunity to raise their children in safe, healthy homes, with uninterrupted health insurance coverage and other benefits. Services are available to mothers of young children with unmet legal needs, including issues related to housing, income, education, employment, and domestic violence, among others.

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About National Nurse-Led Care Consortium

The National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC), a subsidiary of Public Health Management Corporation, is a nonprofit member-supported organization working to strengthen community health through quality, compassionate, and collaborative nurse-led care. NNCC’s mission is to advance nurse-led healthcare through policy, consultation, and programs to reduce health disparities and meet people’s primary care and wellness needs.
 

About William Penn Foundation            

The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region through efforts that increase educational opportunities for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, provide inclusive and equitable public spaces and arts and culture experiences, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. Learn more at www.williampennfoundation.org