Home Visitor Responsive Partnership Toolkit

Access Toolkit

Techniques for Strengthening Relationships With Families

Partnerships between home visitors and families allow home visitors to deliver intended program content and help families achieve their goals. Responsive partnerships center on the idea of tuning in and reacting to cues and concerns from families in ways that acknowledge their efforts, recognize their expertise, and respect their priorities. Responsive partnerships help families feel heard and understood.

This toolkit helps home visitors learn, identify, practice, and apply four key strategies comprising 11 techniques that promote responsive partnerships with families. The strategies and techniques are intended to apply across all home visiting models and programs. The toolkit is based on theory and research and was developed in collaboration with local home visiting programs. It includes:

Four interactive modules with self-paced learning activities
Video clips of home visitors using the techniques, including during virtual visits
Certificates of completion
Resources for using the toolkit as part of supervision or coaching

I have been doing home visiting for about 10 years and communication is one thing that there's never been a good reference guide or a good way to teach you how to do it. This tool is something that could help me better communicate with families" Home Visitor

Why Use This Toolkit

What Is Included in the Toolkit

Modules

Module 1: Learn

Learn the key strategies and techniques for supporting responsive partnerships by exploring definitions, rationales, and examples.

Module 2: Identify

Identify the techniques in transcripts and video clips from real home visits.

Module 3: Practice

Practice using the techniques in vignettes and role-playing scenarios based on situations frequently encountered during home visits.

Module 4: Apply

Apply the techniques in your own home visits and reflect on how families respond.

This toolkit is a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Erikson Institute, and James Bell Associates.

Special thanks to the home visiting programs and staff who helped to develop and pilot test the toolkit.

This project is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Research and Development Platform.

This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by, the Heising-Simons Foundation, HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. government.