Changent

What a time on Capitol Hill!

We’re incredibly proud of our Parent Ambassadors and advocates who spent the day sharing their stories and helping shape conversations around policies that support families.

Changent advocates are in Washington D.C. for our annual Policy & Advocacy Summit!

Parent Ambassadors, Child First clinicians, Nurse-Family Partnership nurses and more spent today training in preparation for meetings with members of Congress and their offices tomorrow. They will share their stories to show the impact of Child First and NFP and ask Congress to continue its investment in these programs.

Both Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First are designated as evidence-based programs under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program – better known as MIECHV. We are currently three and a half years into the five-year reauthorization of MIECHV Congress passed in 2022.

Year-over-year, there has been growth in both reach and service delivery due to increased funding. However, even with this recent funding increase, only about 20% of eligible children and parents are currently being served. We are asking for Congress to consider expanding funding in the next reauthorization to help close the gap and reach families still waiting.

During Mental Health Awareness Month, Courtney Williams’ story reminds us that mental health challenges can affect anyone. Even those who seem strong, successful and “unstoppable.”

Before her pregnancy, Courtney had built a life she was proud of for herself and her 10-year-old son. She had earned a Fortune 100 job, purchased a home and felt confident about the future. But after becoming pregnant with her second child in 2021, Courtney faced severe health complications from hyperemesis, was unable to work, and experienced intimate partner violence and emotional abuse, all of which took a significant toll on her mental health and left her feeling “sick, weak, defeated, and depressed.”

When Courtney connected with her Child First team during her pregnancy, she found not only mental health support, but also compassionate care that helped her whole family heal. Through trauma-informed counseling, parenting support and connections to essential resources for both her daughter and her son, Child First helped Courtney address postpartum depression and PTSD while creating a stable and nurturing environment for her children.

Today, Courtney says Child First changed the trajectory of her family’s life. Inspired by the care she received, she became a certified doula and now supports other mothers through their pregnancy and postpartum journeys with the same compassion that helped her heal.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, Courtney’s story is a reminder that healing happens when families are met with empathy, connection and support. 💚

As we wrap up , the last nurse we are highlighting behind the work of our program, Nurse-Family Partnership, is Kathryn Barnard.

Kathryn Barnard’s work helped deepen understanding of the parent-child relationship and how early interactions shape long-term development. That perspective continues to influence how nurses support families and young children today.

While we've recognized some of the nurses who helped build Nurse-Family Partnership, we’re also grateful for the many nurses who have carried this work forward over the years and continue it today. It’s their relationships with families that continue to define this work.

Patricia Moritz played an important role in ensuring that nurse home visitors were supported with a framework that guides every Nurse-Family Partnership home visit to this day.

Her leadership ensured that NFP’s evidence base would be built on an unshakable foundation.

Ruth O’Brien helped integrate the solution-focused clinical approach that remains central to Nurse-Family Partnership practice today.

Her work helped shape the partnership between families and nurses across the country.

Motherhood can be joyful, overwhelming, exhausting, meaningful — sometimes all at once.

Today, we’re celebrating mothers and the many ways they care for their families, advocate for their children and continue showing up through it all.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Changent!

Rosalia Pilar Baca played a key role in expanding Nurse-Family Partnership to better support Latino families. Her work helped ensure that care reflects the lived experiences, values, and strengths of the communities it serves.

Her words still guide the work today: the mother is the expert in her own life.

Harriet Kitzman played a key role in developing and studying the Nurse-Family Partnership model, helping turn early research into a program that could be implemented in communities.

Her work helped ensure that support for families is both evidence-based and practical.

In 1977, the Elmira Home Visiting Team began working directly with first-time mothers through home visits. Their work showed what’s possible when nurses build trusted relationships and provide consistent support early on.

That foundation continues to shape how Nurse-Family Partnership nurses support families today and informs the work we support and scale at Changent.