They say, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but the complete quote is, “It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to support the child’s parent.” Parenthood is a beautiful but challenging journey for many and not everyone has a proper village they can turn to when they need help. Wonderland Child & Family Services became that village for many children and families.
Wonderland serves not only children of all abilities but their families as well. Some of their services are Early Support and Hope RISING Clinic. The Early Support program supports children and families with diverse needs. As part of the Early Support program, Autism Navigation supports families throughout the beginning of their autism journey. Another increasingly important area Wonderland focuses on is Infant Mental Health. Providers support families and children through various challenges to improve the parent-child relationship and the child’s social-emotional development.
Following the success of Wonderland’s Early Support program, they opened Hope RISING Clinic in 2019 for children with prenatal substance exposure. Drug and alcohol use doesn’t only affect the adults in our society. The impact of prenatal substance exposure (PSE) can be seen while the child starts to develop.
Wonderland knows how difficult it is for families to have differently abled kids. They need special care and attention but most times it can be a challenge for families who are struggling to even meet basic needs. Wonderland is committed to serving families regardless of income, insurance, or ability to pay. They not only offer developmental evaluations at no additional cost to families, but they also provide family support through coaching, mental health counseling, support for siblings, and more.
“Our goal is that everyone has access to services and they get the information before there’s a need for services,” said Liz Marcus-Flores, the Chief Investment and Partnership Officer at Wonderland Child & Family Services.
Since Wonderland’s Hope Rising Clinic is still the only clinic in the region offering comprehensive services for PSE, there is a waitlist to avail of the essential service. Fluke saw and understood how scarce and important Wonderland’s services are, so they established a partnership to benefit many families.
Thanks to additional support from Fluke, Wonderland has since focused on helping caregivers learn new strategies to support their children and further improve their relationships at home. Some of these improvements are:
91% of caregivers learned new strategies to support their children 92% of caregivers gained a better understanding of their child’s disability 89% of caregivers saw an improved relationship with their child 89% of caregivers felt these services Excerpt from Wonderland Child & Family Services “Growing Together” 2021 Annual Report
For us, the greatest obstacles that we face at Hope RISING Clinic specifically, are stigma and shame, and lack of funding. So, it can be challenging to get partners to even have the conversation. The fact that Fluke is able to identify this need, see past any kind of stigma and shame, and just support families and support children is everything. And the financial support is what enables us to keep going. If we don’t get these contributions from partners, we can’t serve families. And so that has been huge.” Liz Marcus-Flores adds.
Fluke and Wonderland are all about the community coming together to meet a need. If you wish to read more about Wonderland Child & Family Services, please visit their website at: https://wonderlandkids.org/
