FY23: The annual target for number of families served is 90-110. During FY23, a total of 93 families received home visiting services. The program has in the past received a great majority of its referrals from a single entity, the Baltimore County Health Department. Referrals from this source have declined markedly, resulting in decreasing enrollment. As a response, the program has been engaged in efforts to increase referrals from other sources which includes soliciting a marketing consultant, expanding our capacity to enroll children from the Department of Human Services, and engaging with agencies in the county that work with parents and young children who may be able to provide referrals.

FY22: The annual target number of families served by the Healthy Families program is 160-180.  A total of 108 families were served by the program during FY22.

The program began Fiscal Year 2022 with a large number of vacant positions, which reduced the number of families it was able to enroll for the first half of the fiscal year.  Program leadership focused on this challenge by offering hiring and referral cash incentives, increasing wages, and evaluating the agency’s hiring infrastructure using a consultant. As a result, attrition has stabilized over the last half of the fiscal year and retention has increased.  However, this period of attrition meant that many families were transferred to multiple Family Support Specialists over a short period of time and many families decided not to continue with the program.  Additionally, because existing families had to be moved to current staff when a peer left the program, there was no availability to enroll new families for several months. 

Simultaneous to the program’s staffing shortage, the agency experienced several key departures in its Human Resources and Fiscal departments, which decreased the capacity of program leadership.  However, these positions have now been filled and the Program Director is better able to prioritize program strategic planning. 

Another challenge the program has experienced has been a decrease in referrals from the Health Department.  Traditionally the majority of the program’s referrals come from this one source.  In fiscal year 2020 it received 863 referrals from the Health Department, in fiscal year 2021 it received 486, and in fiscal year 2022 it received only 144.  While the 2022 fiscal year does include a 2.5 month pause in referrals by request, this has been a dramatic decrease in the number of families with whom it can connect.  The program will begin reaching out to potential referral sources in Baltimore County, including school and medical facilities in order to build new relationships and diversify the ways it reaches potential participants.  The program will apply to adopt protocols that enable it to enroll older children who have been referred from Child Protective Services within the Department of Social Services. This will increase the number of children eligible for participation.  Lastly, the program has amended the eligibility criteria over which it has control to make more families eligible to participate. 

Definition: 

 Served:  A family is considered “served” in the HFBC program when the family enrolls in services by completing consent for services forms during an initial home visit.