The Home Visiting Central Intake Bulletin
Central Intake e-newsletter for Home Visiting providers
October 2020
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Welcome back to The Home Visiting Central Intake Bulletin!
Help Me Grow Central Intake is excited to embark on a new state fiscal year, connecting families to early childhood services throughout Ohio. We look forward to collaborating with Home Visiting providers as you continue the great work of supporting pregnant women, newborns, and young children so they have the best start in life!
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SFY20 Fourth Quarter Referral Data |
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During the fourth quarter, 11,344 system referrals were processed in OCHIDS.
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The referral source breakdown:
- Caregivers (5.2%);
- HEA8045 forms (9.1%) submitted by Home Visiting providers, as well as WIC offices, and other community agencies;
- Medical professionals (12.1%);
- Non-medical community (64.3%) including WIC, community agencies, county agencies, and e-PRAF referrals; and
- PCSA 8021 forms (9.3%) submitted by Children’s Services.
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Of those Home Visiting system referrals, 6,285 were pregnant women with an average gestational age of 23.5 weeks.
There was a 14.9 percent increase in program referrals when compared to the fourth quarter of SFY19. Almost 60 percent of program referrals were for pregnant women and 48 percent of those were first-time moms.
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As of July 1, 2020, more than 86 percent of the available Home Visiting capacity in OCHIDS was filled and over 900 families were on the waitlist in 55 counties across Ohio.
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Pictured above: Convenience store poster advertising Home Visiting. |
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The COVID-19 crisis called for creative and “out-of-the-box” strategies to disseminate Help Me Grow information to communities.
Statewide outreach during the fourth quarter included 2,624 activities, such as virtual meetings and presentations; virtual conferences; canvassing by calling and emailing current and potential referral sources; and dropping off or shipping printed and promotional items.
Outreach staff provided Help Me Grow marketing materials to grocery stores, school lunch programs, food pantries, restaurants offering curbside service, and pandemic child care centers.
These efforts have continued into SFY21 to meet families and referral sources where they are during these atypical times.
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Digital Advertising and Marketing |
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Public media digital ads continued on public media websites across Ohio. Just one of these outlets, ideastream in Northeast Ohio, had 1.17 million impressions and 473 clicks to helpmegrow.org.
Social media advertising for Home Visiting concluded during the fourth quarter, and ads have generated nearly 16,000 impressions and more than 2,400 post engagements.
The Home Visiting digital display advertising campaigns that ran through July 2020 also generated more than 7.3 million impressions and more than 16,528 clicks to helpmegrow.org.
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Moving into SFY21, Central Intake will explore more targeted digital display advertising opportunities. Ad placements have already been purchased with iHeart Media and CommuterAds, and social media advertising will ramp up again in the second quarter. Also be on the look out for billboards, parent/family magazines, and other advertising in your area! |
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Bright Beginnings and Level 7 developed and deployed quantitative research that included 400 online surveys to Home Visiting's target population across Ohio. Level 7 then provide a quantitative analysis of how audiences view Help Me Grow and Home Visiting, how those views can be strengthened moving forward, and what words and/or messages resonate with the target population.
Next, Level 7 plans to conduct its qualitative research with paid focus groups and one-on-one referral source interviews in early October.
We look forward to sharing all the research results in a future newsletter.
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Themes Heard by Central Intake |
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Central Intake staff were recently polled on common themes they are hearing from families as they connect them to Home Visiting and Early Intervention services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The staff reported the following themes most frequently:
- Families still in high need of resources to help care for their families and household
- Families do not want anyone in their home
- Many families have lost their jobs during the pandemic
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Do these results reflect what you're hearing from families you serve?
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Home Visiting in the News |
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Central Intake developed and implemented a media relations plan to increase awareness of Help Me Grow Home Visiting programs. See fourth quarter Help Me Grow news coverage from here, here, and below!
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Did you know?
Families can receive both Home Visiting and Early Intervention services!
If you are currently serving a young child and there is a concern about the child's development, make a referral for Early Intervention!
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