Our Mission

Elgin Foundation serves children in rural Southern Appalachia to encourage the habits of lifetime wellness, educate them to become lifelong learners, and empower communities to proactively create and provide environments where every child will flourish and mature into productive citizens.

To encourage lifetime wellness, we support dental care for children who otherwise would not have access to it, a medical program that provides basic pediatric healthcare and screenings, and an advocacy program that confronts issues of child abuse and neglect. We also work with participating schools to help children in grades K-3 develop reading skills to promote lifelong learning.

 

Promoting Lifetime Wellness

One of the greatest unmet needs among young children – particularly children of poverty – is proper dental care. Consistent and regular dental checkups and treatments are essential to stop the spread of dental disease, yet throughout rural Southern Appalachia, many children have no way to receive the most basic level of care and treatment. With so many low-income families having no access to dental care, hospital emergency rooms are relied upon to treat their dental problems. Elgin Foundation is here for those kids.

We identify where care is insufficient and where it’s needed. We want children to learn the importance of health and wellness, and that begins with their teeth. The foundation facilitates dental care through local school systems, charitable organizations, and volunteers to ensure these young patients will continue to see a dentist for basic, and, if needed, critical dental care. Elgin Foundation looks for children who can’t afford a dental visit, are under-served, or at economic risk.

 

Creating Lifelong Learners

The most critical time to create a foundation of lifelong learning is from infancy through third grade, yet over one-third of America’s fourth graders haven’t reached the most basic level of reading proficiency. The statistics for children from low-income situations are worse; almost half of these children lack basic reading skills, and those numbers continue to rise. Elgin Foundation is here for these kids.

Our mission reaches into the communities of rural Southern Appalachia to give children a chance to learn, grow, and maximize future educational opportunities. We want them to excel, and we want their communities to excel.

For us, there is no justification for allowing low-income kids to continue to fail reading tests. It’s not okay. Okay never works, okay is not excellent, okay is not acceptable.