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Welcome to the Home Visiting Program

An orientation to the Delaware Home Visiting Program, what your role looks like in HubSpot, and how this knowledge base is organized.

Welcome, Kayla

We are glad you are here. This article is designed to give you a solid foundation before you dive into the day-to-day work. The Delaware Home Visiting Program is complex, acronym-heavy, and deeply mission-driven. Take your time with this orientation, and know that the rest of this knowledge base exists to support you as you settle in.

What Is the Delaware Home Visiting Program?

The Delaware Home Visiting Program is a public health initiative administered by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), specifically through the Division of Public Health (DPH). The program supports pregnant women, new parents, and families with young children by connecting them with trained home visitors who provide education, health screenings, referrals, and ongoing family support, right in the home.

The program is funded primarily through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) federal grant. MIECHV funding comes from the federal government and flows through the state to local agencies that actually deliver services. This funding structure shapes nearly everything: how the program is organized, how outcomes are tracked, and why compliance and reporting matter so much in your day-to-day work.

The Four Home Visiting Models

Delaware's program uses four evidence-based home visiting models. Each model has its own approach, target population, and national model developer, but all four serve the same broad goal: healthier families and stronger child development outcomes.

  • Healthy Families Delaware (HFD) -- Serves families who may be at risk, beginning prenatally or at birth and continuing through the early years. HFD focuses on positive parent-child relationships, family stability, and child health and development.
  • Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) -- Pairs registered nurses with first-time mothers, beginning early in pregnancy and continuing until the child's second birthday. NFP has a strong evidence base focused on maternal and infant health outcomes.
  • Parents as Teachers (PAT) -- A family-centered model that emphasizes parenting knowledge, early learning, and family well-being through home visits and group connections.
  • Early Head Start (EHS) -- A federally funded program for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, focused on school readiness and comprehensive family support.

You do not need to be an expert in each model right away. What matters most is knowing that these four models exist, that different Local Implementing Agencies may offer different models, and that families are often matched to a model based on their eligibility and needs.

Local Implementing Agencies (LIAs)

DPH does not deliver home visiting services directly to families. Instead, DPH contracts with Local Implementing Agencies (LIAs) -- community-based organizations and agencies throughout the state that hire, train, and supervise the front-line home visitors.

Delaware's MIECHV-funded program operates across 9 geographic zones across the state. Each zone is served by one or more LIAs. The front-line staff who actually visit families are typically called Family Support Specialists (FSSs), though different models may use different titles.

As a DPH staff member, you will not manage families directly. Your role is to support and oversee the LIAs: tracking their contract compliance, supporting their reporting, coordinating training and events, and maintaining the data systems that keep the program running.

DPH's Role vs. the LIAs' Role

It helps to think of DPH as the program steward and the LIAs as the program deliverers.

  • DPH is responsible for: MIECHV grant management, contract oversight, statewide data collection, compliance monitoring, training coordination, and program strategy.
  • LIAs are responsible for: Hiring and supervising home visitors, enrolling and serving families, submitting data and reports, and operating within the terms of their contracts with DPH.

Your work in HubSpot primarily supports DPH's oversight functions, not direct family services.

What HubSpot Is Used For

HubSpot is the central platform that DPH uses to manage the Home Visiting Program's administrative and communication work. The system was built and is maintained by Tapp Network, a technology partner that built the Delaware Family Support Hub application on top of the HubSpot platform.

In HubSpot, you will use the system for five main functions:

  1. Contact and agency management -- Tracking LIA staff, DPH contacts, and partner organizations
  2. Events and training calendar -- Scheduling, publishing, and tracking attendance for program trainings and events
  3. Contract and compliance tracking -- Monitoring LIA contract status and deliverables through HubSpot's Deals pipeline
  4. Monthly reporting support -- Coordinating and organizing the data that LIAs submit each month
  5. Communications -- Sending program-wide emails to LIA staff and other stakeholders

How This Knowledge Base Is Organized

This knowledge base lives at defamilysupporthub.org/knowledge-base and is organized into categories. The Getting Started category -- where you are right now -- contains the orientation articles most useful in your first weeks. Other categories cover specific features and workflows in more depth.

We recommend reading the Getting Started articles in order before jumping into any other section. Each article builds on the last. If you get stuck or have a question that is not answered here, reach out to your team or to Tapp Network support. Contact information is in the Key Contacts article.

You are joining a program that makes a real difference for Delaware families. This knowledge base is here to make sure you feel supported every step of the way.