Program Description & Expectations:

Program Name: Rainbow Room

Program Purpose:

Core to the mission of providing critical resources to the abused and neglected children in the care of CPS, the Rainbow Room was the first program created when PFC was founded. The Rainbow Rooms are resource centers that are accessible to caseworkers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to provide new essential items to meet the urgent health and safety needs of the clients in their care.

Program Staff Roles:

  • Community Partner Coordinator – Responsible for ordering and monitoring inventory, fulfilling special requests and coordinating with collaborators; identifying opportunities for in-kind donations and working with donors on donation drives, staffs Summit & re-stocks Air Comm. once a week and coordinates with recurring individual volunteers for RR assistance. Also, responsible for recruiting and working with volunteer groups that process in-kind donations and warehouse inventory, refers potential donors to RR Coordinator for drives.
  • Office Administrator –works with Coordinator to set and monitor budget, works with collaborators on invoices, and in-kind tracking and reporting, etc.
  • Interns – Process special requests, assists RR Coordinator with re-stocking inventory on a regular basis, assist caseworkers in RR.
  • Volunteers - shop for inventory, pick up orders and donations from retailers, may assist in staffing RR

Facilities Involved:

  • Main Rainbow Room in the Summit DFPS Office
  • Satellite Rainbow Room at Airport Commerce DFPS Office
  • Warehouse & Storeroom at Summit

These facilities, located within the state offices, are secured through an MOU with the state but all Partnerships Programs are 100% community funded as a stand-alone 501c3.

Clients served:

The Rainbow Room serves children in Travis County CPS system at every level of service from Investigations to Adoption or aging out. Resources are provided to children and/or families through their caseworkers. Each request is tied to and tracked by a CPS case number.

Description of Services Provided:

The Rainbow Rooms are resource centers located within the two Travis County CPS offices that provide new essential items to caseworkers to meet the urgent health and safety needs of the clients in their care, and are accessible to caseworkers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These items include clothing, formula, diapers, food, hygiene supplies, and household cleaning items. Items needed to ensure the safety of children are a priority, including safety kits, car seats, safety gates, pack ‘n plays, air mattresses, and beds. In addition, the Rainbow Room accepts and fulfills special requests for additional items needed to address immediate health and safety needs of children in any stage of CPS care for an immediate or short-term period. All items available through the Rainbow Room are new, and either purchased through community philanthropic funding or secured through in-kind donations from retailers and community members.

Program Partners/Collaborators:

  • Texas State Department of Family Protective Services
  • Travis County Child Welfare Board – This Board supports the Rainbow Room with a supply of bulk inventory (car seats, pack ‘n plays and safety items)
  • Foster Angels CTX – The Rainbow Room coordinates with Foster Angels to cross-refer requests from caseworkers that are best met by each agency.

Other External Relationships:

  • Retail and on-going in-kind donors
  • Firetrol
  • Kids Fashion Delivers Retailers (Babies R Us, Gymboree, Carters, etc donations of infant/toddler clothing and other items)
  • Recurring volunteer groups
  • Junior League of Austin
  • NCL Chapters, YMSL Chapters, Little Helping Hands
  • Other –companies and other
  • CarePortal – church community resource exchange

Board/Program Committee:

The Rainbow Room Committee is in development including 1-2 Board Members.

Significant Program Events: (build to timeline):

  • Bi-annual inventory (Jan/Feb & July/Aug)
  • Monthly Rainbow Room Round Up – sharing Amazon Wish List
  • Back to School Bash (Early August)

Program Evaluation Metrics:

  • Tracking the # of caseworker visits per month
  • Tracking outgoing inventory by item
  • Tracking outgoing inventory by level of care (unit, caseworker, case #)
  • Tracking dollar value of in-kind donations vs. purchased inventory
  • Using Salesforce reports to identify trends in inventory, usage, and donation patterns (in process)

Key Program Processes:

  • Salesforce - used to track Rainbow Room inventory
  • incoming inventory / inventory on hand at both Rainbow Rooms
  • Caseworker withdrawal of existing RR inventory
  • Caseworker special request and fulfillment
  • Inventory and storage of incoming inventory
  • Donations
  • Purchasing
  • Documenting source of inventory items
  • Retailers and pricing
  • Online purchasing (Amazon, Walmart, Dollar Tree)
  • Regular In-Kind Donors
  • retail
  • Post office
  • Child Welfare Board Bulk Purchase
  • Donation drives (business, community groups, individuals)
  • Amazon Wishlist
  • Volunteer Processes

Goals for Next 3 Years

  • Use data from Salesforce to analyze inventory trends and improve both efficiency and processes.
  • This includes establishing distribution / allocation criteria for high value items
  • Targeting timing of and priorities for donation drives
  • Identifying opportunities for other retail relations or collaborations for items
  • Hold an annual supervisor breakfast in fall and opportunities for consistent training / education of caseworkers and communication to caseworkers about processes
  • Develop Rainbow Room Committee to expand volunteer base and use to ensure staff efficiency and increase in-kind donations