Missouri Parenting Partnership Program

3 adults with children

Missouri’s Parenting Partnership Program (MOPPP) is a statewide, voluntary home visiting program. MOPPP focuses on the prevention of child abuse and neglect through promoting, safeguarding, and protecting the social well-being and general welfare of children. MOPPP also assists in strengthening and maintaining healthy parent-child relationships.

Home visitors will provide targeted intensive home visits with families per the required evidence-based model requirements. Visit numbers are based on what is required of the model implemented per region. Providers offer monthly Group Connections and/or Parent Café meetings to enrolled families in every region throughout the state. This allows the opportunity for parents and caretakers to connect with one another and build positive support networks. Providers may offer enrolled families resources such as diapers and diapering supplies, age-appropriate children’s books, health/safety items, etc. based on family needs. 

Models

Healthy Families America (HFA) is a national program recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness(link is external) project as a home visiting model that meets the criteria as an “Evidence-based Early Childhood Home Visiting Service Delivery Model.” The HFA model is a voluntary program designed to work with families who may have histories of trauma, intimate partner violence, mental health, and/or substance misuse. The HFA model utilizes experienced early childhood home visitors to provide frequent and supportive home visiting services. The goals of this program are:

  • to build and sustain community partnerships to systematically engage overburdened families in home visiting services prenatally or at birth
  • to cultivate and strengthen nurturing parent-child relationships
  • to promote healthy childhood growth and development
  • and to enhance family functioning by reducing risk and building protective factors.

For more information, visit the Healthy Families America website(link is external).

Parents as Teachers (PAT) is a national home visiting program recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness(link is external) project as a home visiting model that meets the criteria as an “Evidence-based Early Childhood Home Visiting Service Delivery Model.” The Parents as Teachers model program builds strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe, and ready to learn by matching parents and caregivers with trained professionals, known as Parent Educators. Parent Educators make regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years in life, from prenatal through kindergarten. The Parents as Teachers model program provides a broad context of parenting education and family support that builds protective factors, especially for those families in vulnerable situations. At its core, the Parents as Teachers model program is relationship-based and parenting-focused. Curriculum focuses on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, and family well-being; on strengths, capabilities, and skills; and on building protective factors within the family. Services are provided primarily in the home and through group connection activities. The Parent as Teachers model programming assists primary caregivers to identify strengths and set goals for themselves and their family.

For more information, visit the Parents as Teachers website(link is external).

Eligibility

Eligibility factors:

  • A family must have a prenatal woman or a child under the age of three years in a low-income home under the 185% federal poverty guideline(link is external); or Be referred by Children’s Division for being “at risk” for abuse or neglect as defined by Missouri’s Child Welfare Manual.
  • Priority for enrollment shall be given to families meeting a minimum of four (4), but not limited to, risk factors below:
  1. Child with a disability or chronic health condition;
  2. Death in the immediate family;
  3. Foster care or other temporary caregiver;
  4. High school diploma or equivalency not attained;
  5. Housing instability/homeless;
  6. Intimate partner violence;
  7. History of child abuse or neglect;
  8. Military deployment;
  9. Parent incarcerated during the child’s lifetime;
  10. Parent with disabilities or chronic health condition;
  11. Parent with mental health issue(s);
  12. Single Parent household;
  13. Substance use disorder;
  14. Very low birth weight and preterm birth; and/or
  15. Young parents/teen parents.

If the family is referred by Children’s Division, the agency has the option to serve up until the age of five. For both models, the first home visit shall occur prenatally or within three months after the birth of the baby for at least eighty percent of families. For referrals from a Child Welfare Agency, the first home visit shall occur within twenty-four months for at least eighty percent of families. 

Maps/Contacts

Please see the map for contact information.

If you would like to directly make a referral for home visiting or learn more information about the statewide referral system, visit the Children's Trust Fund CRIS referral website(link is external).