Project Description:
The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program is a national home visiting model for caregivers of young children designed to increase school readiness and to foster parent involvement in their children's education and in community life. This contract funds HIPPY programs at 22 sites throughout Florida. It also supports the activities of the Florida HIPPY State Office located in DARES/USF. The State Office provides administrative support, training, technical assistance, quality monitoring, outreach and advocacy, and research and evaluation support to HIPPY programs in Florida and serves as the liaison between Florida HIPPY programs and the HIPPY national office, HIPPY USA.
The HIPPY curricula are focused on specific school readiness skills including visual discrimination, phonemic awareness, pre-math concepts, self-concept, creativity, problem-solving, and logical thinking, as well as active parental involvement in the learning process. HIPPY programs serve families from a variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, family types, parental education levels, income strata, and language backgrounds. The HIPPY program is free to parents and is delivered by HIPPY home visitors who live in the same targeted high-need communities as the families they serve. The four essential features of the HIPPY model include role playing, home visits, group meetings and a staff of home visitors. HIPPY's systematic program of role playing during home visits and group meetings is designed to engage parents in learning activities with their children and to promote the view of themselves as active agents in their children's education and schooling.
The Florida State Office conducts regional trainings for HIPPY staff, convenes coordinator's meetings, provides in-service training, publishes a state newsletter, maintains a website, holds an annual statewide conference and coordinates the State Advisory Committee. In addition, a planned agenda of research and evaluation to document the influence of HIPPY on participating children and families had been implemented including statewide parent surveys, pilot studies of child outcomes and a longitudinal study of HIPPY children.
Keyword(s):
home visiting, school readinesss, early literacy, parent involvement
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English
