The Children’s Advocacy Center of North and Northwest Cook County is the leading resource to empower and heal abused children and prevent violence against children. The Center serves 38 communities in the Cook County area and sees over 800 children and their families each year. The goal of the Children's Advocacy Center of North & Northwest Cook County is to provide a multidisciplinary approach to severe physical and child sexual abuse cases. The Center recognizes the special, unique needs of child victims while demanding accountability for the crime of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse.
Children’s Home & Aid is a leading child and family service agency in Illinois that links children to a network of opportunity and care, to extended family, teachers, mentors, and the resources of their neighborhood and community The Marletta Darnall Schaumburg Child + Family Center provides subsidized services to low-income, high-risk families living in Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and the surrounding areas. The center is an early intervention program providing early childhood care and education, enabling families to work and receive assistance to care for their children.
ECDEC is an early childhood program that serves children between the ages of three and five years old who have been identified as being “at-risk” and who live within the townships of Palatine and Wheeling. The Center also supports families in a birth to three program. Children who qualify for the ECDEC program exhibit delays of six months or less. The program is funded through a state grant that provides for staff salaries and equipment; District 15 provides classroom space.
FIND is a program for families with children from birth to five years of age living in School District 54. FIND provides services to families and children at five Community Resource Centers locations throughout Schaumburg Township. Services include parent-child interaction opportunities, home visits, parent workshops, Promise to Play (family literacy), adult education opportunities and parent support groups. The District 54 Prevention Initiative offers parent-child interaction opportunities and child development information through weekly personal visits facilitated by District 54 Child and Family Educators. Families also participate in group connections, parenting workshops, and adult education opportunities. Families with children who are birth to three years of age must meet special at-risk criteria.
District 54 currently serves 450 at-risk students ages three to five, with a program that is funded with two Illinois State Board of Education grants. The childhood program may be a child's first experience with school and a parent's first experience having a child in school. With one center for early childhood classes, parents and students can establish relationships with staff. Knowing that the children are already at-risk for school failure or need special education services makes contact with parents critical to ensure the experience is positive.
Nearly one-fourth of District 54 students qualify for the federal free lunch program. Although District 54 receives state and federal funds for the lunch program, schools that want to offer breakfast programs to students in need must raise the money on their own. The D54 Foundation is currently funding Food4Thought breakfast programs at 19 schools for nearly 1,600 eligible students.
The Two Rivers Head Start Agency (TRSA) alleviates the effects of poverty by providing education, support services and opportunities for children, families, and communities. The Elgin program promotes the school readiness of young children from low-income families in eight distinct communities across a five-county region of northern Illinois. School readiness is defined as children being ready for school, along with their families being prepared to support their children's learning, as measured by skills in Language and Literacy, Cognition and General Knowledge, Approaches to Learning, Physical Development and Health, and Social and Emotional Development.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of WACO. Without your help, we simply cannot do all the things we do each year. At WACO, we are all volunteers. We do not have any paid positions. From the president on down, we all help whenever and wherever we can. Whether it be as a committee member or as a volunteer on the day of an event, we hope you will consider joining us.
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