How many college students wake up each morning with the questions, “Where can I find a daycare center close to home?,” “How will I afford child-care?,” “Can I find someone who will watch my child in my home?”

Not many, yet these are decisions the majority of students will have to answer sometime in their life, and places like Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) help with these questions.

4-C will be holding its annual meeting/dinner at 6 p.m. Monday at Matthew Boone’s in DeKalb and the public is invited to attend. The cost of the dinner is $10 per person.

The activities include speaker Jerome Stermer, president of Voices for Illinois Children, who will highlight lobby efforts he hopes to accomplish next year.

The annual report also will be read over and will include such things as highlights of 4-C’s programs and discussions of the amount of grants given.

Micki Chulick, executive director of 4-C, said written and telephone surveys done throughout the year will be discussed to help answer questions about future child care problems.

“We have developed our plan of action for the 20th century and will be talking about what we need to increase or decrease to meet these projected needs,” Chulick said.

In addition, recognition awards will be presented to individuals for their outstanding contribution to children.

“4-C is basically one stop shopping,” Chulick said. It helps parents in need of child care and uses a database to give a history of the child care providers to help fit parents’ needs.

4-C serves DeKalb, Ogle, Lee, Whiteside and Carroll counties, and provides subsidized child care. However, DeKalb is the only county that receives these subsidies and 20 percent of NIU students have subsidized contracts with 4-C.

Chulick said 4-C works to find places in the county which can help people get subsidies and a social worker will go with parents if necessary to help handle problems.

“There are enough funds to put 120 children at subsidized care at one time, but we get between 1,200 to 1,500 phone calls requesting this a year. Most people are able to pay but need to find resources,” he said.

NIU has a co-op internship program that works with 4-C and usually includes human and family resources or nursing majors.

Even though these interns are not paid, Chulick said they are hoping to start the Alternate Student Service Education Trust (ASSET), which would pay interns.

“NIU is a tremendous asset to our program. We have had some really wonderful interns which we are not able to pay for the quality of their service, but they have enhanced greatly the quality of 4-C,” Chulick said.

For more information, call 758-8149.