The second annual National Home Visiting Week takes place April 20-24, 2026 and is an opportunity to celebrate home visitors and the positive impact they make on maternal and child health outcomes. Parenting can be hard. Home visiting professionals empower and work alongside parents to build confidence and resilience. Utilizing a variety of evidence-based models, home visiting supports healthy birth outcomes, increases family self-sufficiency and helps children enter school fully prepared to succeed.
The incredible home visitors on Rockford Public Schools Prevention Initiative team make a big impact on our local families. This week and every week we’re thankful for these hardworking and compassionate home visiting professionals.
Christina mother of two states, "this program is wonderful beyond what a snippet from me can express, but here's my best try. My family has been in the program since my older daughter turned one, and is now four. She's thriving and loving preschool, which is in many ways due her time in the home visiting program. It truly helped her be ready for preschool. My husband, and I feel truly lucky to be a part of this program and that the school district we moved into without knowing much beforehand has such an amazing program. I'm also lucky to have been paired with a Parent Educator that I connected with so strongly. However, from knowing the rest of the staff through various events and meetings, we would have been in fantastic hands anyway. I would say that one of the best things about the program is having a dedicated Parent Educator. It's a beautiful thing having someone, outside of family members, who checks in on you, has gotten to know you so well that they know if you're in a funk, and who truly cares about you and your children. I'm thankful for everything I learned so far and for all of the encouragement I've received for my parenting, both what I learned and what seemed to come natural to me when I became a mom. Every assessment and resource within the program has been so helpful to know where my child is and how I can best support them in each age range or with building new skills. "