The William Penn Foundation grants HFP $761,050 for professional development for child home visiting programs in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, PA – The William Penn Foundation (WPF) recently awarded the Health Federation of Philadelphia (HFP) a $761,050 grant to provide coordinated professional development for maternal and child home visiting programs in Philadelphia.

The grant, which builds off recommendations made in the 2018 “Snapshot of the Home Visiting System in the Greater Philadelphia Area” will allow HFP to focus on providing quality and equitable opportunities for professional development and peer networking across the spectrum of home visiting programs in Philadelphia.

Over the next 3 years, HFP’s Training and Organizational Development Department will develop a suite of in-person and on-line professional development opportunities and peer learning collaboratives for both home visitors and supervisors that are tailored and responsive to their needs.      

“Ultimately we want all families that receive home visiting to benefit from uniformly high-quality services and for home visitors across all programs in Philadelphia to have the same core knowledge and skills grounded in two-generational, trauma-informed and reflective practice supervision approaches,” said Monica Sullivan, HFP’s director of professional development who will be overseeing the new program.

These collaboratives will also provide opportunities for home visitors and supervisors to network with peers in the area and get connected to other home visiting programs. Opening lines of communication will allow the network of home visitors to share best practices, provide and receive peer support, learn about community resources, and identify ways to collaborate across programs.