Success could mean a young mother getting her general equivalency diploma and a job.

It could mean getting children all the vaccinations necessary to enroll them in school.

The scope of success for the Mower County Healthy Families America home visiting program is wide, although it always boils down to the good of the children.

“It really is helping to connect these families with the community, to build the resilience in these families to take care of themselves,” said Lisa Kocer, director of Mower County Health and Human Services.

The program that gives support and guidance to families of children 3 years old and younger is losing key federal funding, but gaining help from the Minnesota Department of Health in the form of a $393,089 grant.

“The funding itself is more than we’ve ever gotten before,” Kocer said.

The grant will cover two years of operations of the program. It will fund four trained public health nurses and a public health supervisor.  The program’s  partners include Mayo Clinic Health Systems‐Austin, Mower County WIC program, Mower County Social Services, the local school district and Early Head Start.

The United Way has played a significant role in funding the program through its grants.

The new state grants are part of the $4.87 million in additional family home visiting funds from the Minnesota Department of Health to 19 counties and two tribal nations in greater Minnesota. The additional funding will allow the communities to build on existing family home visiting programs, serving an additional 300 families.

At any given point, the Mower County home visit program helps about 30 families, Kocer said. Newcomers to the United States are among those families and they can struggle with understanding the public school and health systems, she said. They also lack the family support system built over generations here, she said.

“The program’s early intervention and parental education helps keep kids developmentally on track, she said.

The federally accredited program is the type that’s more likely to be found in higher population counties, Kocer said.

“We really benefit from staff here that are very dedicated,” Kocer said. “And the county commissioners are very supportive.”

According to a Health Department news release announcing the grant, family home visiting programs serve at-risk families such as first-time moms, parents with high risk or high needs, and families facing challenges of mental illness, domestic abuse, or substance abuse. Through home visiting programs, a nurse or other trained professional provides practical health and parenting support to parents and pregnant women during ongoing home visits until the child is 2 to 3 years old.

National research has shown that family home-visiting programs result in improved health during pregnancy, fewer childhood injuries and improved school readiness. These programs also have also had a demonstrated impact on reducing child emergency room visits and the number of months a family is on welfare. There is a range of $2.88 to $5.70 return on every dollar spent to serve high-risk families through Nurse-Family Partnership, according to an analysis by the RAND Corporation.

“Minnesota has made an important investment in health of our children by making home visiting more available to Minnesota families,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Ed Ehlinger, who visited Austin this week. “Home visiting has been shown to help kids and families get off to a healthy start that positively influences them throughout their lives.”