During National Home Visiting Week, our Family Support Specialist Supervisor, Shanna Carswell-Worley, was named a 2026 National Home Visitor of the Year by the Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals! Shanna was selected as one of only five recipients nationwide from 179 nominees across 35 states. This recognition honors her outstanding work, leadership, and amazing impact in the home visiting field, and it highlights the meaningful difference she has made in the lives of families over her decades of service.
When asked what home visiting means to her, Shanna simply says, “Home visiting is part of who I am.” Those words reflect the passion she has brought to CHA since 1999, when she became our very first home visitor. For more than 26 years, Shanna has helped shape our Catawba Valley Healthy Families program while walking alongside families through some of life’s most challenging moments, including grief, illness, housing instability, and generational trauma.
In Shanna’s work, continuity is essential. Home visitors complete the initial family assessment and continue serving families over the long term, allowing trust to grow from the very first visit. Those early relationships often last well beyond a family’s time in the program. Shanna is still in touch with families she began working with nearly 26 years ago, including one child she once served who is now married and preparing to welcome her first baby.
“I truly love these families,” Shanna says.
Some of her most meaningful moments come in major milestones, like watching a young mother she once supported walk across a college graduation stage, something that mother once believed was impossible. At the same time, many of Shanna’s favorite moments are quiet ones, spent on living room floors during playtime between parents and their children.
Supporting healthy parent child attachment is at the core of Shanna’s work. She recognizes that not every parent feels an instant bond after birth, and that experiences such as stress, exhaustion, pregnancy, labor, and life circumstances can affect attachment. Shanna focuses on normalizing those experiences while offering consistent, compassionate support as families grow together over time.
“Watching a mom who may not have felt that immediate connection learn how to bond with her baby is one of the greatest parts of the job. That bond can grow, and getting to be there while it does is incredibly powerful.”
–Shanna
Today, as a Family Support Specialist Supervisor, Shanna also mentors and supports other home visitors, sharing the experience and compassion she has built throughout her career. We are incredibly proud to celebrate Shanna, and we’re truly grateful to have her as part of CHA!
