Nurse-Family Partnership Announces Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) Commitment to Action to Improve Birth and Child Health Outcomes

Nurse-Family Partnership Seeks Philanthropic Support to Launch First U.S. Maternal and Child Health Pay for Success Project

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Nurse-Family Partnership

Jun 09, 2015, 11:00 ET

DENVER, June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today Nurse-Family Partnership announced its CGI America Commitment to Action to improve birth and child health outcomes for first-time mothers and their babies in New York. Commitments to Action are the defining feature of CGI that are new, specific, measurable ways to address a significant global challenge. The national Nurse-Family Partnership ® (NFP) program, based in Denver, Colo., is the leading home visiting program for achieving significant outcomes in maternal and child health for families living in poverty. As part of its commitment, pending contract with New York State, Nurse-Family Partnership is seeking philanthropic support to launch the first U.S. maternal and child health Pay for Success project – an innovative, public-private partnership funding model – to rapidly scale its program to create better opportunities for inner-city children in New York that will break cycles of poverty and positively impact the country's economy.

Nurse-Family Partnership nurse home visitor arrives at the home of a new mom and her baby enrolled in the program in New York. (Photo Courtesy of Nurse-Family Partnership)

"Nurse-Family Partnership has a long record of evidence of achieving two-generational change for high-risk pregnant women and their first children," said Roxane White, president and CEO of Nurse-Family Partnership. "We are excited to move towards launching the first ever maternal and child health Pay for Success project in the U.S. and are seeking philanthropic support to help us scale this proven program to give babies born into poverty brighter beginnings and opportunities for success to truly change high-risk communities."

Philanthropic support will support start-up costs to help Nurse-Family Partnership enroll low-income women, pregnant with their first child in New York City and Long Island. This Pay for Success project expands on existing NFP programs in these high-risk communities and will enroll a total of 2,000 low-income women in four years, with the CGI Commitment to Action targeting 1,100 low-income women in the first two years. Philanthropic support will also help set up the evaluation of the Pay for Success project to measure the impact of Nurse-Family Partnership on the following outcomes, pending final contract negotiation: reducing preterm births, closely-spaced births, child injury-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations through age 2. For more information on how you can fund changing outcomes for vulnerable families in New York, contact Michelle Stapleton at [email protected].

Nurse-Family Partnership is based on over 37 years of randomized, controlled trials – the gold standard of evaluation – that show its effectiveness in improving maternal health, reducing emergency department visits among children, reducing child abuse and neglect, reducing juvenile crime, and increasing school readiness, among other outcomes.

This Pay for Success project, also known as a Social Impact Bond, will provide Nurse-Family Partnership with the private capital it needs to serve a large number of high-risk pregnant women. The private capital will cover the costs of providing each low-income, first-time mom with a registered nurse who provides her with home visits until her child's second birthday to support her in having a healthy pregnancy and improve her child's health and development, in addition to empowering her to achieve economic self-sufficiency for her family. The private capital will also support the evaluation with a randomized, controlled trial that will measure the outcomes in maternal and child health. The funders that provided this capital support will be paid back for their financial support of the project by New York State, only if NFP is successful in meeting specific outcomes in maternal and child health.

"Nurse-Family Partnership's rigorous evidence and measurable return on investment make it an excellent fit for Pay for Success financing," said Tracy Palandjian, CEO and co-founder of Social Finance – a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and managing the Pay for Success contract between the state, private investors and NFP. "Pay for Success offers a promising pathway for NFP to scale and become a solution to ending inter-generational poverty."

Nurse-Family Partnership serves over 31,000 low-income, first-time moms in 43 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and six Tribal communities. Participation is free and voluntary for the mother.

About Nurse-Family Partnership

The Nurse-Family Partnership National Service Office (www.nursefamilypartnership.org) is committed to producing enduring improvements in the health and well-being of low-income, first-time parents and their children by helping communities implement and sustain an evidence-based public health program of home visiting by registered nurses. Nurse-Family Partnership is the most rigorously tested maternal and early childhood health program of its kind. Randomized, controlled trials conducted over 37 years demonstrate multi-generational outcomes that benefit society economically and reduce long-term social service expenditures. Nurse-Family Partnership is headquartered in Denver, Colo. Follow NFP on Twitter @NFP_nursefamily and Facebook at facebook.com/nursefamilypartnership.

About CGI America

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. Established in June 2011 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) addresses economic recovery in the United States. CGI America brings together leaders in business, government, and civil society to generate and implement commitments to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, and support workforce development in the United States. Since its first meeting, CGI America participants have made more than 400 commitments, which have improved the lives of nearly 1.4 million people.

CGI also convenes an Annual Meeting, which brings together global leaders to take action and create positive social change, CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world, and, this year, CGI will also convene CGI Middle East & Africa, which will bring together leaders across sectors to take action on pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobaland Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150608/221645

SOURCE Nurse-Family Partnership