Maternal, infant and early childhood homevisiting grant program - purpose: the purpose of the H.O.M.E. Visiting program is to provide families in the cnmi who are identified as at-risk with the…

The Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration awarded Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation $1,658,857 on September 30, 2025, under the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant program (CFDA 93.870).

CHC delivers voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services to at-risk families in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands using the Healthy Families America model. The program targets pregnant women and parents with young children, addressing barriers such as transportation, language differences, and low income that prevent access to primary and preventive services. Performance objectives through September 2027 include increasing breastfeeding rates at six months by 5 percent, increasing well-child visit rates by 5 percent aligned with American Academy of Pediatrics schedules, increasing depression screening referrals by 5 percent, and ensuring 75 percent of enrolled children receive at least one parent-child interaction observation using a validated assessment tool.

The award runs through September 29, 2027, with place of performance across the Northern Mariana Islands. CHC is the sole public healthcare provider in the CNMI and operates as a government-owned hospital system serving Saipan, Tinian, and Rota with administrative oversight across the territory. The assistance type is a Project Grant.

Maternal, infant and early childhood homevisiting grant program - purpose: the purpose of the H.O.M.E. Visiting program is to provide families in the cnmi who are identified as at-risk with the tools and support to improve their overall health status, safety and well-being through the delivery of coordinated and comprehensive high-quality voluntary, evidence based, early childhood home visiting services. Families residing in at-risk communities continue to face challenges and/or barriers when seeking primary/preventive services which result in poor health outcomes. The challenges include no means of transportation, language barriers, conflicting cultural and upbringing beliefs, education less than 12 years, family priorities, low-income level with high cost of living, etc. The H.O.M.E. Visiting program has implemented the healthy families america (HFA) model that will systematically help reduce associated risk factors while at the same time improve protective factors such as with strengthened positive parent-child relationship. Goal(S) and objectives: •goal 1: promote the importance and benefits of breastfeeding. Objective: by sept 2027, increase the number of infants enrolled in HV who are breastfed at 6 months by 5% from the previous reporting year. •goal 2: increase well-child visit rates. Objective: by september 2027, increase percent of enrolled children who received the last recommended well child visit based on the AAP schedule by 5% from previous reporting period. •goal 3: increase depression referral to appropriate agency. Objective: by september 2027, increase the number of caregivers screened for positive depression who received recommended services with one of more service contacts by 5% from previous reporting period. •goal 4: increase parent-child interaction (PCI) using a validated tool. Objective: by september 2027, 75% of target children enrolled receive at-least one PCI observation. Approach: the H.O.M.E. Visiting program will continue to provide the tools and support to improve the overall health status, safety and well-being of families residing in at-risk communities. The at-risk communities to be served include the entire island of saipan, tinian and rota. The evidence-based model implemented in the cnmi is healthy families america (HFA) and will be the only home visiting model used. The total proposed caseload of family slots FY 2024 is 200 and FY 2025 is 215. The current number of families enrolled is 160 (saipan -139, tinian 14, and rota - 7) for the entire cnmi. Collaborative efforts with community partners will ensure that families faced with multiple needs such as resources for health promotion, support, family assistance, preventive services, and overall access to community resources are being met.key activities to ensure appropriate linkages and referral networks to other community resources and supports that the families could benefit from include: joint efforts for capacity building among program staff who make up the cnmi early childhood system, address social determinants of health, including identifying families' housing needs, continuing education, job seeking assistance to improve family self-sufficiency, and collaborating on a centralized early childhood system as part of pressing efforts to reduce the burden among families who complete duplicate developmental screening. The cnmi miechv program will be requesting additional federal matching funds of $599,997.00 following the matching grants waiver opportunity provided to the cnmi. FY 25 federal match ceiling amount: $599,997.00 FY 2025 non-federal contribution required for matching funds - ceiling amount: use match waiver amount of $199,999.00