CommunityConnections: 2006 Winter Edition - Grantee News - The Colorado Trust

Invest in Kids: Supporting Nurse-Home Visitation

Invest in Kids logo - The Colorado TrustSince 1993, The Colorado Trust has provided support for the nurse-home visitation program. This program was recently noted by the Bell Policy Center as being key to offering Coloradans an effective opportunity to succeed. In its new report, Colorado: A State of Opportunity 2005, the Center identifies and analyzes key indicators that measure Colorado's successes or shortfalls. To help residents reach their full potential, the report recommends an expansion of the nurse-home visitor program. The program has been proven to help improve the prenatal health of new mothers, increase the mothers' employment rates and reduce their use of welfare and food stamps, and decrease unintended pregnancies.

The Trust supports the efforts of Invest in Kids, a nonprofit organization, to make the nurse-home visitation program available in all Colorado counties. Invest in Kids has done a tremendous job of bringing this program to 50 of Colorado's 64 counties, with continuing efforts for complete statewide reach.

Additionally, with Trust support, Invest in Kids has commissioned an evaluation of the process of bringing the Nurse-Family Partnership model from a controlled experimental setting to full implementation in communities across the state.

For more information about Invest in Kids and its work with this program, visit www.iik.org, or contact Ginger Harrell, Program Officer, ginger@coloradotrust.org, or Nancy Csuti, Director of Evaluation, nancy@coloradotrust.org.