Family Engagement Toolkit

The Family Engagement Toolkit is a guide and a set of resources to help home visiting programs reach more communities by strengthening their outreach, recruitment, and retention efforts. It translates knowledge about how to engage families into practical, flexible steps. The toolkit can help home visiting programs and those working with programs:

• Assess their strengths and weaknesses in building awareness, enrolling, and retaining families
•  Think about—and prioritize—their immediate needs and long-term goals
• Strategize and make changes that respond to families’ or communities’ needs

• Learn about common family engagement challenges or strategies

Because there is no single answer for how to improve family engagement, the Family Engagement Toolkit is meant to be a practical, flexible springboard for program leaders working with staff or partners to address the engagement challenges—and opportunities—their program is facing. Leaders can decide how much of the toolkit to use at any given.   

The Family Engagement Toolkit is one component of the Understanding and Expanding the Reach of Home Visiting (HV-REACH) project. The HV-REACH project is studying, developing, and disseminating evidence-informed resources and strategies that home visiting programs can use to increase access to and participation in home visiting services among eligible families. Mathematica is conducting this project in partnership with the Brazelton Touchpoints Center and Social Grove on behalf of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration.