“We’ve all learned a lot about advocacy,” said Emily Spence as she reflected on over a year of hard work.
It’s a topic in which, 27 years into her career in the home visiting field, she probably didn’t expect to find herself taking a crash course. Her advice? “Start earlier.”
Recent funding changes in her state of Rhode Island left home visiting programs struggling, concerned for their economic stability. In response, group of Parents as Teachers supervisors and representatives from similar programs – Healthy Families America and First Connections – formed a coalition and began meeting together regularly to seek solutions.
“We’re all working together to try to save all of our programs,” said Spence, who is the director of Looking Upwards Parents as Teachers. As their first step, they sought advice from members of the legislature with whom Spence already had connections. Juggling home visiting, supervising, and the growing responsibility of each program’s future, they also made time for the suggestion they received – create informational material to educate legislators.
The resulting piece reflects the partnership itself in many ways. Illustrating the distinct focus and strengths of each home visiting program, it illuminates their differences to emphasize the necessity of preserving all three. The family testimonials the coalition chose to highlight in their informational piece, though, don’t specify which program’s services they received – in this most important element of home visiting, no “credit” is assigned.
A few months after their first step, a key partnership brought their work to a new level. Rachel Flum, a policy and advocacy consultant at Children’s Friend, another agency which provides home visiting services to hundreds of Rhode Island families each year, had learned of the group’s situation and stepped in with support.
“We definitely would not be where we are without Rachel’s influence,” Spence said. With her guidance, the coalition hosted a home visiting event for Rhode Island’s four members of Congress. Held at a non-profit learning center, the event platformed parents and program leaders who spoke about the funding needs. Overall, the tone was positive and focused on educating the audience.
Another parent wrote a statement that Spence read aloud at the event. Ashley Faria detailed the many benefits of the evidence-based model that Parents as Teachers delivers, explaining the implications of preventative health screenings and mental health support, community resource connections, and child development education.
“In today’s world, PAT [Parents as Teachers] is more vital than ever,” Faria wrote.
Spence initiated another positive connection with a simple but powerful invitation for Rhode Island Senator Linda Ujifusa, who she already knew, to join her on a home visit.
“I reached out to her through email, and I just invited her,” Spence said. Spence made sure to mention that both she as the parent educator as well as the family they’d be visiting were constituents of the senator and asked if she would be interested. “She immediately said she was.”
And she did – in April, a single mother with whom Spence has been partnering for home visits welcomed Spence and Senator Ujifusa into her home. They sat on the floor together with her young child and offered a first-hand look at the service that elected officials have the opportunity to influence through their votes.
With the support of the coalition, Children’s Friend also organized a Sustain Home Visiting Day at the Rhode Island State Capitol to advocate for bills that would require the state to contribute matching funds for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program as well as to increase their reporting on home visiting income sources and spending.
The legislation focused on sustainability, a pivot from bills traditionally centered around home visiting. With the closure of three Parents as Teachers programs as well as the last of the Nurse Family Partnership programs in Rhode Island in the past year, the change reflected the state of the field.
The bills had a hearing in both the House and the Senate on Sustain Home Visiting Day, and three home visitors and one parent spoke before the legislature.
Spence recalled the courage of the mother who agreed to testify, noting that she had never participated in advocacy before but jumped in with both feet.
“Her attitude was, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes,'” Spence said. In fact, she recently hosted Rhode Island State Senator Bridget Valverde at her own home visiting session with a parent educator, a connection born out of a conversation at the Capitol that day.
With the end of the legislative session in sight, the tangible results of the advocacy work remain to be seen. The vision, however, is steadfast.
The parents in the process clearly serve as a beacon on a difficult road. As Spence recounted each parent who acted with conviction about the depth of value that Parents as Teachers offers, she pointed to them as the reason for the effort in the first place.
“I’m humbled to be a part of my families’ parenting journey.”