First Steps Rural Home Visiting Program

Words in [brackets] are blanks you fill in with your own details when you adopt this sample in Supreme Plan AI.

Executive Summary

First Steps Rural Home Visiting Program is a nonprofit that sends trained home visitors to pregnant women and families with children under age three in rural counties, free of charge. Visitors follow an evidence-based curriculum, screen for development and family needs, connect families to health care and other services and visit in person or by phone or video when travel is hard.

Families in rural counties live far from clinics and classes, and the first years of a child's life are when support matters most. A trusted visitor who comes to the door can bring early help to families who would otherwise go without it.

With this grant we will serve about 60 families in Year 1 in 2 counties. Our visitors are not clinicians, they call 911 in any emergency and they follow the law on child safety reporting. We do not promise any health outcome. We promise careful supervision, respectful visits and honest records.

Our Year 1 budget is about $243,000, growing to about $416,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 5 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Supervisor and two Home Visitors) and 9 by Year 5.

We are asking the Prairie Children's Health Foundation for $80,000 for two Home Visitors and training and supervision. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

First Steps Rural Home Visiting Program is a nonprofit organization in Kentucky. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Every child in our rural counties should have a healthy start, and every new parent should have someone to turn to.

What we do.
- Send trained home visitors to pregnant women and families with children under age three, free of charge.
- Use an evidence-based curriculum covering pregnancy, infant care, development, safe sleep and nutrition.
- Screen children for development and families for needs, and connect families to services.
- Offer visits by phone and video when distance or weather make travel hard.
- Provide books, safe sleep supplies and other items through vendors.
- Support parents with referrals to health care, mental health and benefits.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. Our home visitors are not clinicians and do not diagnose or treat. They refer to licensed providers and call 911 in any emergency. They are mandated reporters and follow the law if a child may be in danger, and we explain this to every family at the start. We do not promise any health outcome. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of nurses, a pediatrician and a church volunteer began visiting new mothers in our county who lived far from the nearest clinic. Families asked for more visits and for visits before the baby came. We kept simple records of visits and what families told us. This proposal asks for support to move from volunteer visits to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Families in rural counties live far from clinics, classes and services, and the first years of a child's life are when support matters most.

Cost. Travel costs time and money, and many families cannot afford to miss work or find a babysitter to attend appointments.

Access. Many rural counties have few pediatric providers, little public transportation and spotty internet, and families may not know what help exists.

Safety and trust. Families want to know that visitors are trained and trustworthy, and funders want to know that visits follow a proven curriculum and are well supervised.

Missed benefits. Children who do not get early support may fall behind in development, and parents may feel alone with problems that are easy to solve with a little help.

What we hear.
- A mother says her nearest pediatrician is an hour away.
- A nurse says new parents ask questions she never had time to answer in a clinic.
- A home visitor says one conversation about safe sleep changed how a family set up the crib.
- A father says his visitor was the only person who asked how he was doing.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that a trusted visitor who comes to the door can bring early support to families who live far from help.

Products & Services

First Steps Rural Home Visiting Program gives pregnant women and families with children under age three in rural counties a safe, welcoming place to get a healthy start.

How the program works.
1. Enrollment. Families are referred by clinics, schools, WIC offices and churches, or enroll themselves.
2. Visits. A home visitor meets each family at home every one to two weeks, by phone or video when travel is hard.
3. Curriculum. Visits follow an evidence-based curriculum on pregnancy, infant care, child development and parent well-being.
4. Screening. Visitors use standard tools to screen for development and for needs such as food, housing and depression.
5. Referrals. Visitors connect families with health care, mental health care, WIC and other services.
6. Supplies. We provide books, safe sleep items and other basics through vendors.
7. Supervision. A nurse supervisor meets with each home visitor weekly and reviews every family's plan.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our home visitors are trained in the curriculum, pass a background check, complete our training and are supervised by a nurse. Many are from the communities they serve.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free and voluntary. We welcome every eligible family and offer visits in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Pregnant women and families with children under age three who live in our rural counties. Eligibility is based on where a family lives, pregnancy or a child under three, and priority for families with low incomes or other risks.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our volunteer visits we served more families than we could keep up with and kept a waiting list. Clinics and WIC offices told us that many more families would enroll than we can serve. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 60 participants at 2 counties. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 180.

Where participants come from.
- Clinics, hospitals and WIC offices.
- Schools and early childhood programs.
- Churches and community groups.
- Families who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Children gain a healthier start. Clinics gain healthier patients. Communities gain stronger families.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a parent and a visitor at the kitchen table. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Clinics and pediatric providers. Essential and far away. We bring information and support to the home.

2. Public health nurse visits. Valuable and limited in number. We add capacity.

3. WIC. Provides food and education at appointments. We add home support.

4. Early childhood programs. Good and limited by distance. We reach families who cannot travel.

5. Online parenting information. Plentiful and impersonal.

What makes us different.
- Free visits at home or by phone and video.
- An evidence-based curriculum.
- Nurse supervision for every visitor.
- Screening and referral to services.
- Visitors from the community.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with clinics, WIC offices, public health nurses and other early childhood programs to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Clinics and WIC offices. We will give staff a short referral form and a named contact.
- Schools and early childhood programs. We will share flyers and information.
- Churches and community groups. We will talk with leaders who know families.
- Families. We will use social media and local radio.
- Word of mouth. Families tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit home visitors through nursing schools, early childhood programs and community colleges.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, visits completed, screenings done and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Hire and train home visitors and begin enrollment.
- Months 4 to 10: Visit families, complete screenings and make referrals under nurse supervision.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey families and partners, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Visits take place in family homes and by phone or video. Staff work from a small office at the clinic.

Safety and privacy.
- Visitors follow a check-in plan and call a supervisor before and after every home visit.
- Visitors follow the law on child safety reporting and explain this to every family.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $10,000 of equipment once at the start: tablets and secure phones for home visitors ($4,000), visit bags with books and demonstration materials ($2,500), printer and locking file storage ($1,500), hotspots and laptops for video visits ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Supervisor, a nurse paid $56,000 a year, supervises visitors. Two Home Visitors, each paid $38,000 a year, work with families. We add home visitors as we add counties.

Management & Organization

Carolyn Holt, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a rural public health nurse who drove an hour to see a family. I will complete the training we require of our home visitors so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Supervisor, a nurse, supervises visitors and reviews every family's plan, and the home visitors work with families. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a nurse, a pediatrician, a parent, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a county commissioner. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A public health nurse, a WIC coordinator and a child development specialist give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $52,000 a year; program Supervisor, paid $56,000 a year; home Visitor, paid $38,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 60 participants at 2 counties.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 90 participants at 2 counties.
- Year 3: About 120 participants at 3 counties.
- Year 4: About 150 participants at 3 counties.
- Year 5: About 180 participants at 4 counties.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 59 percent of our budget, down from about 63 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $80,000 from the Prairie Children's Health Foundation for two Home Visitors and training and supervision, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Home Visitor salaries, two positions, $76,000.
- Other: Visitor training and reflective supervision, $4,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 52% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $243,000, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $10,000 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $153,000; state Maternal and Child Health Funding $60,000; health System Partners $22,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $52,000; program Supervisor $56,000; home Visitor $38,000; mileage and Vehicle Costs about $14,000; curriculum and Screening Tools about $6,000; reflective Supervision and Training about $6,000; family Supplies (Books and Safe Sleep Items) about $8,000; telehealth Tablets and Service about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $10,000; about $4,000 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $19,500 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $4,000 for tablets and secure phones for home visitors; $2,500 for visit bags with books and demonstration materials; $1,500 for printer and locking file storage; $2,000 for hotspots and laptops for video visits; $2,500 for attorney review of the consent form, mandated reporter policy and privacy policy; $1,500 for flyers, banners and a simple website; $2,500 for visitor training and background checks; $3,000 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($19,500), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $57,800, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $77,500. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $72,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a regional hospital, $80,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $243,000 in Year 1 to about $416,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $153,000, $176,000, $199,000, $222,500 and $246,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Maternal and Child Health Funding from $60,000 to $100,000; health System Partners from $22,000 to $46,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $10,000 in Year 1, about $12,400 in Year 2, about $14,700 in Year 3, about $17,300 in Year 4 and about $20,200 in Year 5. We grow from 2 counties to 4 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $72,300, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $9,720 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per family. In Year 1, our total costs are about $3,883 per family served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more family served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $2,201 per family.

After the grant. State maternal and child health funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free home visiting option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of familys and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $153,000 in Year 1, growing to $246,500 in Year 5.
- State Maternal and Child Health Funding: $60,000 in Year 1, growing to $100,000 in Year 5.
- Health System Partners: $22,000 in Year 1, growing to $46,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $52,000; program Supervisor $56,000; home Visitor $38,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: mileage and Vehicle Costs $14,000; curriculum and Screening Tools $6,000; reflective Supervision and Training $6,000; family Supplies (Books and Safe Sleep Items) $8,000; telehealth Tablets and Service $3,000; administration and Insurance $10,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $10,000 at the start, then $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $19,500, paid once from $80,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 60 in Year 1, growing to about 180 in Year 5. Sites: 2 in Year 1, growing to 4 by Year 5. Visits happen year-round, every one to two weeks for each family.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs