Summer reading, part III - Prevent Child Abuse America makes it easy to support the Education Begins At Home Act.

April 1, 2007

Preventing harm requires two things: knowing what NOT TO do, and knowing what TO do -the "do's" and the "don'ts".

Hospital education about SBS does the first. There is clear evidence that home visiting programs do the second [including this recent RAND report]. This legislation will help expand home visiting programs.

From PCAA's Prevention Advocate

Take Action on the Senate Home Visitation Legislation
Ask Your Senators to Cosponsor S. 667

Please ask your Senators to cosponsor the Education Begins at Home Act (EBAH, S. 667), recently reintroduced in the Senate by Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY). EBAH would establish the first dedicated federal funding stream to support parents with newborns and young children through quality, voluntary home visitation. If enacted, EBAH would extend to a broad range of families the opportunity to benefit from home visiting programs like Healthy Families America. Making quality home visitation programs more widely available in all communities is one of Prevent Child Abuse America’s top priorities.
As of March 27th, the following Senators have already joined Senators Bond and Clinton as cosponsors to S. 667: Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Pat Roberts (R-KS) and John Rockefeller (D-WV). If your Senator is on this list, please be sure to thank him/her.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Why Congress Should Pass EBAH:

Home visitation is an effective, evidence-based, and cost-efficient way to bring families and resources together and help families to make choices that will give their children the chance to grow up healthy and ready to learn.
Home visitation delivers parent education and family support directly to parents with young children in their homes providing guidance on how parents can enhance their children’s development from birth through kindergarten entry.
Quality early childhood home visitation programs lead to proven, positive outcomes for children and families, including improved child health and development, improved parenting practices, improved school readiness, and reductions in child abuse and neglect.
Existing home visitation programs like Healthy Families America serve only a small percentage of families in need of prevention and family support services. EBAH dollars would enable programs to reach thousands more families who have very young children -- the same cohort of children that suffers disproportionately from abuse and neglect in this country.
Take Action on EBAH!
Take action by e-mailing your Senators through Prevent Child Abuse America’s Legislative Action Center. Prevent Child Abuse America has created a sample e-mail asking Senators to cosponsor EBAH that we encourage you to personalize. All Senators can (and should) be asked to cosponsor the EBAH. Support from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is crucial, however, because it has jurisdiction over the legislation and can move EBAH forward.

Democrats
Edward M. Kennedy (MA), Chair
Christopher J. Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY)
Barack Obama (IL)
Sherrod Brown (OH)

Independent
Bernard Sanders (VT)

Republicans
Michael B. Enzi (WY), Ranking Member
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Wayne Allard (CO)
Tom Coburn