Well Child Center

Welcome to Well Child Center! 2026-2027 is all about reintroducing the programs and services offered through our amazing organization. Our theme for this “reintroduction” is “Wellness WINS for Children and Families at Well Child Center!”

What does this mean? In the past year, we have continued to support children, women and families in our community in the areas of oral health and nutrition, respectively. We are proud of the impact we’ve had and appreciate the support of partners, funders, and others in our journey!

The following are highlights of accomplishments over the past year:

• We have increased the number of women and children served through our Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program and our Breastfeeding Peer Counseling program.
• We have expanded our oral health programs to include community- and school-based dental services, extensive and enhanced community outreach and education, and enhanced partnerships and local collaboration.
• The number of children and adolescents who are uninsured and underinsured receiving dental care in our pediatric dental clinic has increased significantly.
• We completed construction on the SMILE Dental Salon for Women—a dental clinic for low-income pregnant and post-partum women.
• We completed implementation of a program that expanded behavioral health support and services through our WIC program. Through this project we promoted positive maternal mental health and provided services and linkages to support women experiencing maternal mental health challenges. We also supported our WIC team in their work with the vulnerable populations we serve through monthly reflective supervision.
• We continued efforts to support father and male caregiver involvement in the lives of young children thought our “We Dig Dads” program.
• We successfully implemented the second year of our summer internship—Project SMILE—focused on preparing high school students for careers in dentistry, nutrition sciences, and/or public health.
• Fun activities for children and families were offered through our Food for Families pantry, including our summer “recipes-to-go” offering, Mother’s Day gift giving, and after school “grab-and-go” snack bag giveaway.
• We continued efforts to focus on working with community partners and healthcare providers on identifying urgent maternal warning signs during pregnancy and the post-partum period for Black and brown women.

Our reputation as a trusted and innovative partner in the community has been solidified.

We could not have accomplished all that we have without our amazing staff, important and intentional community partnerships, and support from our diverse and committed board of directors.

We also acknowledge that our work could not be achieved without the generous support of donors, partners, and individual community members who recognize the value of the services our organization provides.

The future is bright for Well Child Center because Wellness is WINNING for children and families at Well Child Center—and we hope to keep the momentum going!

With sincere gratitude,

Michelle Zajac Esquivel, MPH, Executive Director