Blog

This year, Well Child Center introduced a new Fatherhood and Male Family Member Engagement Initiative. Well Child Center’s mission includes proactively and inclusively involving fathers, male family members, and male caregivers in all aspects of our programs, services, and operations. Our commitment is to ensure that they are valued as vital partners in their child’s growth and well-being.

Hey dads! Explore the resources below, thoughtfully tailored for dads and male caregivers, like you!

Dad Resource List (downloadable pdf)

Dad Resource List – Printer-Friendly (downloadable pdf)

Did you know?

Dental problems can lead to children missing partial lessons or entire days of school. Recent studies have found that 30% of children ages 6-12 missed school due to dental problems. This refers to treatment that is past preventive care and does not include regular bi-annual dental appointments.

Recent data also indicate that children in the United States missed over 9,000,000 school days due to dental issues—that is an alarming number!

A recent study showed the following:

• Overall, 16.3 million children in the United States lack dental insurance; this is 2.6 times the number of children who did not have medical insurance.
• Children uninsured for dental care were less than half as likely to have received preventive dental care.
• Race/ethnicity is an important modifier in the relationship between insurance coverage and preventive dental care. African American children, regardless of dental insurance type, were significantly less likely than white children to have received preventive dental care.

Stay ahead of their health and call us for an appointment at 847-930-6721. We offer same day, walk-in appointments and accept all public dental insurance. We also have a sliding scale fee schedule for anyone who does not have dental insurance. 

Prefer to schedule an appointment online? Complete the contact form at https://www.wellchildcenter.org/schedule-an-appointment/. 

 Don’t you want to bring your child to our awesome dental clinic?

Starting in January, Well Child Center’s pantry—Food for Families—has been coordinating food / supply donation activities! Each month a local organization, agency or company will coordinate a donation “drive.” Our calendar is full for almost all of 2023! Check back here for monthly highlights.

Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is one of the sponsors of Well Child Center’s Food for Families. In addition, Advocate Sherman Hospital coordinated a MASSIVE donation drive throughout the month of February at the hospital on Randall Road in Elgin. Thousands of pounds of food and other donations were collected—so much that we had to make weekly trips to the hospital to pick up the donations. Thank you, Advocate Sherman employees and providers. You have extended your “help” to children and families in our community in the most generous of ways! Muchas gracias to Well Child Center board member, Fran Teti-Teal, for coordinating this.

St Paul’s United Church of Christ in Elgin is the March donation sponsor for Food for Families. Throughout the Lenten season, members of St Paul’s United Church of Christ will be donating food and other non-perishable items for the pantry. Well Child Center is both humbled and honored to be considered a partner with this church. Their passion and compassion for helping others is amazing.

Interested in coordinating a food donation drive for the Well Child Center pantry? Contact Michelle Esquivel at mesquivel@wellchildcenter.org.

Well Child Center was fortunate to engage a local artist to develop a mural for the lobby in our main site on Wing Street. Stop by and check it out.

The mural is fun, whimsical, interactive and more!

An Elgin-based artist and illustrator created the mural. When she’s not filling up her sketchbook, you can find her reading graphic novels, roller skating, or dreaming up new recipes to bake. She finds value and meaning in any and all creative work, and believes that creativity enhances everything with color, life, and diversity.

She graduated from Illinois State University with a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking and a BS in Art Education.