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