Call for Proposal

The 2026 National Home Visiting Summit is an in-person conference and will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront on September 29-30, 2026. Accepted presenters will be expected to attend in person.

Acceptance notifications will be sent to submitting authors by early March 2026. Please note that due to the high volume of proposals, we cannot provide feedback for each submission. Authors interested in receiving feedback are encouraged to email the Summit planning team. The Summit planning team will do its best to accommodate all requests for feedback.

The Summit is designed to provide a multi-pronged, holistic approach to systems change by incorporating policy, practice and research and connecting home visiting to other components of the early childhood system. This approach both leverages and goes beyond professional learning to effect actionable change on a systems level. Therefore, we encourage community, state and federal systems leaders; researchers, policy makers and advocates; individuals interested in scaling innovations; and parents and providers interested in influencing systems change to join us in 2026.

Envision a world where local, state and federal systems ensure that all children, families, providers and communities have fair conditions, adequate support, and agency to live with humanity and joy. The home visiting field is a contributor to creating access to opportunities and increasing favorable outcomes for children and families in the United States and globally. Systems change happens at every level of home visiting with families and home visitors, supervisors, funders, policy professionals, researchers, and community, state, tribal, and national partners all pushing at different leverage points. As drivers of quality and positive change in home visiting across many roles, with varied and often intersectional backgrounds and wisdom, the National Home Visiting Summit invites you to join as systems influencers and change makers.

1. Contribute to and be a catalyst for field-building investments to design and strengthen the infrastructure needed to ensure a home visiting system that best meets the needs of families, communities, and the workforce.
2. Provide leaders in the home visiting field and connected systems of care with a national forum for the exchange of best practices, innovative and emerging concepts, and lessons learned across systems, models, states, and communities.
3. Promote and highlight solutions that emphasize recreating systems so that all children and families have access to the supports they need to thrive.
4. Facilitate building strong partnerships with local, state and national leaders to increase systems influence and inform policy nationwide.

• Please submit your proposals by January 4, 2026. Proposals should address the 2026 content areas of interest.
• Please align your proposal content with the conference objectives.
• Proposals are encouraged to incorporate both parent/caregiver and provider perspectives, with an emphasis on centering voices that may include but are not limited to:
  • Tribal home visiting programs
  • Community-based home visiting approaches
  • Immigrant and refugee serving programs, practices and experiences
  • Urban and rural community systems builders and frontier experiences
  • Honoring all family structures and configurations

Accepted workshop session speakers and poster presenters can register at the discounted rate of $599.

Travel and Registration for Home Visiting Parent and Caregiver Presenters

To elevate the expertise and experiences of parents and caregivers engaged in home visiting services, funds are available to support parents and caregivers who are a workshop or poster presenter. Proposal submissions should indicate if there are parent/caregiver speakers. The following support will be offered:

• Complimentary conference registration
• Complimentary accommodations at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront for two nights: Monday September 28, 2026-Tuesday September 29, 2026

Additionally, we highly recommend that organizations submitting proposals that include parent/caregiver presenters build funds into their budget to provide additional travel support. This includes:

• Flight or ground transportation reimbursement
• Daily Stipend and childcare award, or
• Honorarium to compensate for expertise and cover additional costs

Please email Events@startearly.org with any questions related to supporting parent/caregiver participation at the Summit

Register Now

The 2026 National Home Visiting Summit is an in-person event. We will not offer the option to speak virtually. All speakers and presenters must be present at the event in Baltimore, MD to participate.

Presentation Guidelines: We ask that all PowerPoint and print-ready materials be prepared in consideration of those with visual limitations. Consideration of color contrast between text and background, font size, use of alternative text for images shared are all important. Best practice tips can be found here.

Start Early will offer a conference branded PowerPoint template that includes accessible formatting as an optional resource for presenting teams. For best practices that include presenting live you can find support here.