The Home Visiting Services Demonstration is testing whether weekly home visits to teenage parents who receive public assistance can help them transition off welfare. Under the demonstration, paraprofessionals, many of whom are themselves former public assistance recipients, work closely with case managers and teenage parents to improve the family's social, personal, health, and economic conditions.

This initiative is part of the States' employment programs, which help public assistance recipients move from welfare to independence. Launched in September 1994, the demonstration phase will operate through September 1997 in Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon, with the evaluation of the initiative expected to be completed in September 1998.

Home visitors provide instruction and guidance in such areas as pregnancy prevention, parenting skills, education and work skills, health care, and sources of help. There is also a strong emphasis on child support, including paternity establishment.

In each city, at least 225 teen parents and their children will receive employment services and home visiting services. Another 200 teen parents in each site will receive such services but no demonstration sponsored home visits.

Young parents under the age of 20 are eligible to participate in the demonstration. Because the demonstration is targeted to young women with their first child, most of the children taking part in it are infants. Unless they leave welfare, families will continue in the program for two years. For those who leave, visits may be provided for a 90-day transitional period.

Visits with the family, which last about an hour, usually take place in the teen's home but occasionally occur at such locations as schools, work sites or public facilities. Visitors complete a strengths and needs assessment for each teen and identify specific areas to be strengthened. In addition, visitors closely monitor perinatal health check-ups for the children and identify any special needs.

In each session, visitors use curricula for teens and children as a means of focusing on a specific topic and addressing immediate needs within the family. Teens are provided with resource materials on such topics as child development and safety.

The Home Visiting Demonstration is a joint initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Department has pledged over $3 million and the Kaiser Foundation nearly $1 million to test and evaluate the initiative. The project is being evaluated by the University of Pennsylvania.