Created more than 130 years ago, Family & Children’s Place (F&CP), a community-based organization (CBO) in Louisville, Kentucky, has a long history of serving area residents in need. In the early 1990s, F&CP partnered with the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMDPHW) to ramp up prevention, intervention, and treatment programs to assist children and families in crisis. Together, the organizations launched the Jefferson County Health Access Nurturing Development Services program, or HANDS, a voluntary home visitation program serving new or expectant parents in the Louisville metro area.

HANDS targets at-risk children and families facing multiple challenges such as single parent status, low parent education, substance use, and domestic violence. The program equips parents with the skills and resources to support: (1) healthy pregnancies and births; (2) optimal growth and childhood development; (3) safe and nurturing environments; and (4) self-sufficient families. While HANDS has now expanded throughout Kentucky, This case study focuses on the Louisville-based partnership.

This profile looks at a partnership between Family & Children’s Place and the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness that provides home visitation services for new and expectant parents to equip them with the skills to support a healthy family.