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Home visiting is one of the most successful ways to help support parents in the tough job of parenting. Kentucky’s voluntary home visiting programs are supported with federal funding through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). This funding is set to expire March 31, 2015, putting home visiting programs at risk of not being able to serve families in need.

Please join us in a national Home Visiting Day of Action on Tuesday, March 3rd and ask your Members of Congress to support funding for home visits.

Call your Senators and Representative   

  1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Member of Congress. (Or you can look up the names and phone numbers of your Senators and Representatives.)
  2. Once you’re connected, please identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak to the “health legislative assistant.”
  3. Use the talking points below to help frame your message:
  • “My name is ____________. I’m a constituent and I’m asking that the Senator/Representative support the reauthorization of the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program and include it as a part of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate package.
  • Without Congressional action, authorization for MIECHV will expire on March 31st.
  • Without authorization, Kentucky would likely need to consider freezing enrollment of new families in need of services. This would prevent reaching additional families with evidence-based programs that improve health, help prevent child abuse and neglect, encourage effective parenting, and promote school readiness.
  • This issue is important to me. Would you please ask the Senator/Representative to let me know what he/she did to protect home visiting?
  • Thank you.”

Take Action on Twitter

You can also join us on Twitter on March 3rd between 1:30-2:30pm Eastern Time using the #HomeVisiting hashtag.  Here are the Twitter handles for Kentucky’s delegation:

Senator Mitch McConnell @SenateMajLdr
Senator Rand Paul @SenRandPaul
Representative Ed Whitfield @RepEdWhitfield
Representative Bret Guthrie @RepGuthrie
Representative John Yarmuth @RepJohnYarmuth
Representative Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie
Representative Hal Rogers @RepHalRogers
Representative Andy Barr @RepAndyBarr

Here are a few sample tweets to help you get started:

  • #HomeVisiting is a bipartisan success story that will end this month without help from @SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE.
  • Invest in stronger families & communities in KY. Reauthorize #HomeVisiting. @SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE
  • Republicans & Democrats support evidence-backed voluntary #HomeVisiting. @SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE. Pls protect it.
  • #HomeVisiting increases family self-sufficiency, lowers health care costs & reduces need for remedial #education. @SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE