In 1989, after the highly publicized death of a young toddler in Dallas, a group of concerned citizens created Community Partners of Dallas to assist Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworkers in meeting the needs of children in their care. Then in 1993, these efforts evolved into 24/7 resource rooms called Rainbow Rooms. In 1998, with the help of the First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush, this program was replicated throughout Texas. 

In February of 2003, this initiative was brought to Austin as Partnerships for Austin Children in Crisis (now Partnerships for Children) and was incorporated and gained 501c3 status. We opened the doors to the first Travis County Rainbow Room in September of that year.

In 2004, we began our second program, Holiday Wishes. We hosted its first toy drive, brightening the lives of 250 children who couldn’t be home for the holidays.

After seeing what a difference our two programs were making in the lives of the children in CPS, we decided to work on making an even bigger impact through annual fundraising. In 2006, we hosted our 1st annual gala. In 2010, Cover 3 hosted its 1st annual Golf Classic for us. In 2011, we hosted our 1st annual Girls & Giving event and the 1st annual Byrd & Street Mistletoe Jam.

In 2012, we were awarded the Impact Austin grant. This enabled us to launch our third program, YES Mentoring, to support youth aging out of the child welfare system. 

In 2014, we announced our fourth program, the Heart Gallery of Central Texas, at our 10th Anniversary Celebration. This program helps children who’ve been waiting to be adopted find their forever home.

At the end of our 2014 fiscal year, our annual operating budget broke the $1 million mark. And we haven't stopped growing.  We kicked off our current fiscal year with a $2.5 million operating budget. 

Our volunteer initiative, Teens4Teens, began in the summer of 2016. We knew this was a wonderful opportunity for young people to get involved in their communities and be encouraged to maintain that spirit of generosity as adults.

Forever Families is a weekly outreach and awareness segment featuring children and youth from our Heart Gallery. Since 2017, the coverage has expanded, and these segments are now featured on KVUE and viewed by thousands each week. 

In 2018, we were approached by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to take over the backbone support for Foster Community; a network of nonprofits, government agencies and community leaders dedicated to increasing the number and diversity of healing foster and adoptive families in Central Texas.

In 2019, we expanded our resource services coverage and took over management of the Rainbow Room in Waco to assist with the growing need in this community. 

2020 certainly had a profound impact on our world and was especially challenging for the children and families we serve. Through the amazing support of our community, PFC was able to pivot and expand our resource services to provide meal delivery, grocery gift cards and rent and utilities assistance to the families we serve. This assistance is now part of our regularly provided resources. 

Our Board of Directors have focused the final months of 2020 on in-depth DEI work to build a foundation for the future of our organization and programs that put anti-racist and culturally competent supports in place to continue to chip away at the disparities in outcomes for children of color in our community. 

In January 2021, we announced that Kids in a New Groove (KING) would be joining the PFC family. This mentoring through music program provides music mentors for children ages 5 and up who are involved in the child welfare system.