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The Essentials of Home Visiting

Robust. Reflective. Relevant.
Accredited online courses to support home visiting in any model.

Home visitors, doulas and family support professionals are an essential part of family wellbeing and strong program outcomes. That’s why we launched The Essentials of Home Visiting, a high-quality, online training platform designed to create confident, competent home visitors and supervisors within any home visiting model.

The Essentials of Home Visiting closes the gap in home visitor education with relevant topics and a flexible, accredited training experience. Learners earn early childhood CEUs that support the acquisition and maintenance of professional credentials across multiple fields and state and professional registries.

Our comprehensive catalog of cost-effective, self-paced courses and live webinars is competency-based and rooted in decades of home visiting expertise from Start Early. Individualized implementation support from Start Early experts ensures you meet state and system requirements while strengthening the professionalism of your entire home visiting workforce.

NEW! Adult Learning & Adult Literacy Webinars

Learn about the factors that affect adult learning and literacy and become more effective in collaborating and engaging with diverse families. These webinars are perfect for ALL home visiting and early childhood staff.

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Live Webinars Available in Spanish!

Attend two of our most popular Essentials of Home Visiting webinars, presented live in Spanish. Reach out to our team to learn more.

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The course helped me better organize my time and prepare myself before going to a home visit. I feel more confident in ... how I utilize my knowledge and take care of myself in order to help others.
Participant

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The Details

What does The Essentials of Home Visiting include?

The Essentials of Home Visiting offers research-based learning experiences that can be mixed and matched to create custom training solutions for family professionals.

Self-Paced Online Courses

The course catalog includes 10 courses, which cover everything from foundational training to advanced topics like infant mental health and trauma-informed practice. Two courses are specifically designed for supervisors of family professionals.

Online courses are self-paced and typically completed in 2-3 hours, with unlimited starting and stopping permitted. Learners have perpetual access to their courses, so they can refer back to the content at a later date.

Course Catalog

Basics of Home Visiting
The Impact of Trauma in Home Visiting
Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3 (ASQ-3™) Overview & Best Practices
Foundations of Infant Mental Health Practice in Home Visiting

Live Webinars

Webinars are live and facilitated by home visiting experts at Start Early. Each webinar is offered multiple times throughout the year.

There are 17 webinars within the course catalog, including 2 that are offered in both English and Spanish, and 4 specifically developed for supervisors. Each webinar includes a presentation, case studies and a Q & A session. Participants also have access to the recorded sessions.

Course Catalog

Understanding Substance Abuse Through the Family’s Lens
Home Visiting Boundaries
Promoting Effective Parenting With Motivational Interviewing
Trauma in Families & Communities

Implementation Support

Start Early experts provide technical assistance to assist state and system leaders in providing the optimal professional learning experiences to meet the unique needs of professionals.

Technical assistance includes:

Regular calls to discuss implementation progress
User data analysis and reporting
Custom training portal with partner branding
Communication tools and materials to drive usage

All Essentials of Home Visiting participants receive a Certificate of Completion stating the number of hours of professional development and a description of the learning event completed. The Essentials of Home Visiting trainings can be used towards several credentials and align with many state professional development registry systems. See full list below:

Credentials

Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health (AAIMH): The Essentials of Home Visiting self-paced online courses and live webinars are approved by the AAIMH. Upon completion of these learning experiences, participants earn in-service training credits towards Endorsement® from their local Infant Mental Health Association, if their association is a member of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health. See crosswalk which details The Essentials of Home Visiting trainings that support each Endorsement Knowledge & Skill Area, as well as credit hours a professional may earn upon completion.
Child Development Associate (CDA) for Home Visitors: The Essentials of Home Visiting trainings can be used as Professional Education Clock Hours to obtain or renew your CDA for Home Visitors. Upon course completion, participants are provided official certifications documenting all required information. See crosswalk which details the alignment of the Essentials of Home Visiting to the CDA-Home Visitor competency goals and the number of credit hours that can be earned.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs): Start Early is approved by IACET (International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training) to offer CEUs in support of the workforce to earn, obtain, or renew a range of recognized credentials. Start Early is a provider of CEUs for Social Work, Education and Nursing in the state of Illinois. We can supply you with the necessary documentation so you can receive CEUs within your state.
Nursing and Social Work: Start Early is an approved provider of CEUs in Nursing, Social Work, and early childhood workforce certifications. Many states licensing boards for Nursing and Social Work have reciprocal agreement to accept CEUs as approved by these boards in Illinois. Certificates of Completion can be downloaded to verify attendance and submitted per your license requirements.
Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE):The Essentials of Home Visiting online courses can be used for Contact Hours / CEUs to obtain or renew your CFLE credential. Upon course completion, participants are provided official certifications documenting all required information.

Competencies

Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals (IAFSP): The Essentials of Home Visiting courses align to the IAFSP Competency Framework. See crosswalk for additional detail.
Head Start / Early Head Start Relationship-Based Competencies to Support Family Engagement: The Essentials of Home Visiting self-paced online courses and live webinars align with the Relationship-Based Competencies which support strengthening relationships with families, family engagement, and professional development. See crosswalk which details The Essentials of Home Visiting courses and webinars, and which Relationship-Based Competencies are supported by each.

Registries

National Workforce Registry Alliance (NWRA) Training Organization Recognition (TOR): Start Early is a proud member of the National Workforce Registry Alliance, which promotes high quality, coordinated, documented, and accessible career development systems that support a well-trained, well-educated, early childhood workforce. As an NWRA Recognized Training Organization, Start Early has demonstrated a commitment to best practices and continuous quality improvement. State registries may be able to expedite approval processes for training organizations already recognized by the NWRA. See the states that accept Recognized Training Organizations.
Illinois Gateways
Oregon Registry

Visit our online training portal to browse learning experiences or register as an individual for a course or webinar from The Essentials of Home Visiting.

Visit Portal

(The Essentials of Home Visiting) allows rural home visitors to attend trainings and not use excessive time and money traveling. This is so important in the current financial climate. The interactive components … also allow (participants) to form relationships and feel part of … a learning community.
State Leader, Illinois

What the Field Is Saying

94% of participants report satisfaction and 91% would recommend The Essentials of Home Visiting to a colleague
76% of participants report applying what they learned within one week of engaging with a The Essentials of Home Visiting experience

The Essentials of Home Visiting

Resources & News

Explore resources from our home visiting experts and learn how The Essentials of Home Visiting can help your team.

Look Closer

Explore the research behind our innovative approach to early childhood education.

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