First Focus Vice President of Early Childhood Policy Karen Howard was quoted in Kaiser Health News on August 8, 2017 speaking about the benefits of the first pay-for-success home visiting program in South Carolina. 

 

S.C. Taps Private Donors To Expand In-Home Services For At-Risk Moms (Kaiser Health News) 

Deona Scott was 24 and in her final semester at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina when she found out she was pregnant. She turned to Medicaid for maternity health coverage and learned about a free program for first-time mothers that could connect her with a nurse to answer questions about pregnancy and caring for her baby.

The nurse would come to her home throughout her pregnancy and for two years after her child’s birth.

“My mouth dropped,” Scott said. “I was like, ‘Thank you, thank you,’ I can’t not take this program.”

Now Scott works full time for that same Nurse-Family Partnership, a local affiliate of a national program. She spreads the word about the program to pregnant teenagers and young women in the state who may be feeling just as scared and unprepared as she did before her son, Phoenix, now 3, was born.

Her job is part of a…[Read More]