SLS 19RS-449 ORIGINAL
2019 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 39
BY SENATORS MILLS, THOMPSON AND WALSWORTH
COMMENDATIONS. Commends the Nurse-Family Partnership in Louisiana upon the
twentieth anniversary of the program's establishment.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend the Nurse-Family Partnership, begun in 1999, on their twentieth anniversary,
3 noting that Louisiana was one of the first states to begin this outreach program,
4 which has proven to be very successful.
5 WHEREAS, the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program is operated through local
6 partners in forty-one states with proven outcomes in helping first-time, low-income mothers
7 and their babies improve pregnancy and birth outcomes, child development and welfare, and
8 family economic self-sufficiency; and
9 WHEREAS, the self-sufficiency aspect of the program is accomplished by helping
10 parents develop a vision for their own future, and providing guidance on how to attain that
11 goal; and
12 WHEREAS, through the NFP program, specially educated registered nurses visit
13 women in their homes regularly, during what is considered the key "window of opportunity"
14 of a woman's first pregnancy and continuing up until the child's second birthday, to impact
15 the baby's critical "first one thousand days of life" development; and
16 WHEREAS, NFP has produced consistent evidence that it accomplishes the
17 following goals: improvement of prenatal health; improved outcomes in subsequent
18 pregnancies and births; an increase in the intervals between the first and second pregnancies;
Page 1 of 3 SR NO. 39
SLS 19RS-449 ORIGINAL
1 increased maternal employment; reduction in women's use of welfare, reduction in children's
2 mental health problems; an increase in children's school readiness and academic
3 achievement; and reduction in costs to government and society; and
4 WHEREAS, as a two-generational program, NFP involves both the parents and the
5 child, and it has the advantage of having been operating for over twenty years, providing
6 substantial amounts of information for many disciplines of research; and
7 WHEREAS, economic research focusing on the NFP program has shown that the
8 societal benefit with higher-risk families is nearly six dollars saved for every one dollar
9 invested, with most of the savings accruing to government, in lower costs in governmental
10 services needed, and in programs intended to assist those living in poverty; and
11 WHEREAS, leadership of NFP chose to offer the program for public investment only
12 after they had evidence of enduring program impact and cost-savings in the health and lives
13 of first-time mothers and their children, and that the impact from at least two randomized
14 and controlled trials' evidence of enduring program impact and cost-savings, and confidence
15 that the essential elements of the program could be reliably reproduced; and
16 WHEREAS, data from the fifteen year follow-up study to the NFP trial in Elmira,
17 New York, evidenced positive effects for nurse-visited families continuing more than twelve
18 years after the visits ended, and the following outcomes have been observed among
19 participants in at least one of the three randomized and controlled trials that documented a
20 forty-eight percent reduction in reported cases of child abuse and neglect, a nearly sixty
21 percent reduction in arrests among children, and seventy-two percent fewer convictions of
22 mothers; and
23 WHEREAS, the NFP program has served more than twenty thousand vulnerable
24 Louisiana families since 1999, driven by the mission of a future where all children are
25 healthy, families thrive, communities prosper, and the cycle of poverty is broken, an
26 ambitious, but seemingly unattainable task accomplished.
27 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
28 does hereby commend the Nurse-Family Partnership, begun in 1999, on their twentieth
29 anniversary, noting that Louisiana was one of the first states to begin this outreach program
30 which has proven to be very successful.
Page 2 of 3 SR NO. 39
SLS 19RS-449 ORIGINAL
1 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
2 Nurse-Family Partnership.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SR 39 Original 2019 Regular Session Mills
Commends the Nurse-Family Partnership, begun in 1999, on their 20th anniversary, noting
that Louisiana was one of the first states to begin this outreach program, which has proven
to be very successful.
Page 3 of 3