The Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative (HARC) was established in 2012 with core funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (MCBH HRSA). Since then, HARC’s enduring objectives have been to:
- develop a national network of researchers and other home visiting stakeholders;
- develop and disseminate a national research agenda; and
- advance the use of innovative methods and translation of findings into policy and practice.
In 2017, HARC was given a five-year award from MCHB HRSA to expand on its work and to build a home visiting research and development platform. In this expanded role, HARC’s charge has been to promote innovative research toward precision home visiting. To do this, HARC aims to build stakeholder’s capacity to do research to learn what works best, for whom, in which contexts, why and how.
HARC employs several strategies in its work. These include:
- building awareness through national meetings, publications and social media
- providing opportunities for precision home visiting through our practice-based research network and pilot projects
- building financial support for externally funded precision home visiting research; and
- building stakeholder’s “can do” and “will do” for innovation towards precision home visiting
In 2020, HARC developed the Precision Paradigm, which is a framework that aims to build a common language across home visiting models and for precision home visiting research.