The Multi-Site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting (MUSE) is the first multi-site, multi-model study to systematically explore how home visiting programs are operating across diverse community contexts and to identify factors that lead to successful program implementation, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mixed methods evaluation will provide information to help the federal government design and support federal home visiting initiatives in tribal communities and similar populations. Additionally, the results of MUSE will help programs build on what is going well across programs to improve home visiting services for children and families.

In 2016, James Bell Associates, in partnership with the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Center, was funded to conduct a multi-site implementation study of Tribal Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV), with an option to develop and implement a modified version of the MUSE study with state MIECHV-funded local implementing agencies (LIAs) that serve American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) families. That option was initiated in 2021. The two study threads within MUSE parallel the two different granting mechanisms by which MIECHV serves AIAN families: (1) MUSE for Tribal MIECHV (MUSE-THV) and (2) MUSE for State-Tribal Collaborations (MUSE-STC). Both study threads utilize community engagement processes throughout the study design and planning, data collection, analysis and dissemination phases. (author abstract)