The past year presented numerous opportunities and challenges for our organization and local home visiting providers as the Commonwealth faced three pandemics: health, racial equity/social justice and economic. While challenged by these crises, our home visiting system responded swiftly and compassionately to meet the needs of Virginia families. Local providers immediately pivoted to connecting with families by whatever means necessary to ensure their safety and well-being. More often than not, this meant that home visitors and families together had to learn new ways of connecting via technology. And, local providers had to find, or in many instances create, new ways of supporting families to get their needs met. From safely dropping off emergency supplies to ensuring COVID safe medical and mental health care, home visitors accomplished heroic feats on a daily basis. And, our statewide system also rose to the occasion by springing into action to provide the support that local providers needed to maintain meaningful connections with families. From immediate policy provisions to providing emergency supplies, training and technology, Virginia’s system responded efficiently and effectively. With a shared commitment to supporting families adversely impacted by the pandemics, often at great personal sacrifice, Virginia home visitors and leaders met the challenge of the last year in ways that continue to inspire awe and deep appreciation.

In the midst of these transitions, Early Impact Virginia (EIV) maintained a clear focus on addressing the rapidly changing needs of local communities, local providers and families while also completing numerous large scale strategic projects, including:

• Home Visiting Data Warehouse
• 6 Virtual Home Visiting e-learning modules & Interactive Supervisor Toolkit
• New Intimate Partner Violence Screening Approach
• 7 Classroom training courses converted to virtual delivery
• Home Visiting Needs Assessment
• Community Readiness Toolkit
• Strategic Growth Plan

Highlighted in this year’s annual report, EIV led the development of the Home Visiting Strategic Growth Plan. This Strategic Plan provides the context and direction necessary to fully operationalize the Plan for Home Visiting adopted by the Children’s Cabinet in May 2019. Informed by the EIV statewide home visiting needs assessment and input from more than 200 stakeholders at the local and state level, the Home Visiting Strategic Plan addresses the Commonwealth’s key priorities for pregnant persons and families with young children and sets a bold strategic direction for scaling services to achieve community level impact.

The following report details the ways in which Early Impact Virginia is leading or contributing to advancing the Commonwealth’s vision for young families.