Babies don’t come with a book of instructions, and as children grow into their toddler and preschool years, their needs grow and so can the challenges. Parents and others raising children who are struggling to make ends meet and juggling the challenges of raising their young children would benefit from the supports necessary to improve child development and school readiness, child health, family economic self-sufficiency, linkages and referrals, maternal health, positive parenting practices, reductions in child maltreatment, and reductions in juvenile delinquency, family violence and crime.

Unfortunately, too few get this support:

• In Pennsylvania, more than 826,000 children are under 6 years of age. Almost 313,000 children under 6 years of age are low-income, which the Childhood Begins at Home campaign considers to be at-risk children most in need of evidence-based home visiting programs.
• However, only 20,665 out of 826,000 children in PA are served by publicly funded, evidence-based home visiting programs.
• That means just 2% of all children under six and only 7% of low-income children under six are receiving services.

This clearly illustrates the need to expand these services to additional families and children.