Kane County Home Visitation Collaborative

The Kane County Home Visitation Committee (HVC) came to life in Kane County over a decade ago, in 2000, to build coordination among home visitation programs serving low income families. This was a time of great system development in Kane County and Elgin also, spurred by the success of the newly formed Perinatal Committee and the new opportunity to start an AOK Network.

The HVC became a collaborative group that pooled efforts and resources at the system level. Soon, a centralized referral process was created and implemented utilizing Family Case Management intake appointments with newly expectant mothers as a key point through which 95% of Medicaid-eligible mothers entered the Early Childhood System (ECS). Eventually, other referring agencies joined the system.

A voluntary effort from the beginning, the HVC was formed with representation first from the existing Healthy Families, and Nurse Family Partnership. Soon Early Head Start, the Day One Network CFC, and the High Risk Infant Follow Up program joined with the support of the FCM and TPS programs. More recently, the Family Case Management Programs of VNA Health Care, Aunt Martha’s Health Network, and the Greater Elgin Family Care Center joined the HVC along with the Well Child Center and Strong, Prepared and Ready for Kindergarten (SPARK).

The HVC members agreed to make decisions by consensus following ample discussion and dialog. Meetings, held three times a year, dictate action steps to be carried out between formal meetings. Agendas and minutes assure that decisions and processes are documented and progress tracked. Eventually members authored an HVC charter /membership agreement which is signed by member agency executive leaders. The HVC members, from the outset were linked closely with the Elgin ECS/AOK partnership and offered vital efforts to their success.

Since the need for home visitation was so great and the resources so few, the initial HVC goal was to assure that all home visitation programs received adequate referrals to always stay full and to avoid any duplication of services. The HVC created a centralized home visitation referral system in response to this need as noted previously. At referring agencies, mothers are offered the opportunity to receive home visiting and sign a consent. The referrals are collected by the HVC facilitator, recorded in a tracking database, and distributed among all the programs according to their eligibility criteria, the mother’s residence, and the program capacity. The HVC referral process mechanisms have evolved and improved over time, changing as often as system changes occurred.

The HVC members discussed the advantages of enhancing the current centralized referral system into a truly universal system which offers the FCM referral process, form, and outcome tracking to operate together with other common referral entry points in the schools, hospitals, social service agencies—even online self referral. In Elgin, the new MIECHV Project is testing this out, working to recruit many referring partners.

Collaborative goals and activities beyond a centralized referral process were implemented as the Home Visit Collaborative developed:

1) use of a common referral form for all HV programs;

2) unified home visitation marketing/promotion materials were created in addition to materials produced by each program;

3) shared workforce development trainings were offered to all HV program staff based on HVC members input (Attachment 15, training topics);

4) active participation in AOK assessment, strategic plans, and initiatives;

5) specific HVC action plans were developed to address ECS/AOK goals and objectives;

6) participation in the County Community Health Assessment; followed by development/ implementation of specific HVC action plans to address.

The current HVC members remain committed to acting as a coordinated and collaborative group, realizing that the diversity of home visitation models allows families to be served in ways that match their needs. By uniting our efforts, members achieve much more than any one program could achieve working alone.

Visit our Programs page to learn more about HVC members

Additional Information:

Care Coordination Form for Home Visitors in English

Care Coordination Form for Home Visitors in Spanish

Home Visit Referral Process Chart