Collaborative for Children's History
1987
Initiatives for Children is formed to provide child care resource and referral services to companies in the Houston area, particularly in response to the great increase in working mothers in the late 1980s.
1988
Initiatives for Children begins offering caregiver training through a broad-based training program called "Family to Family" for home-based child care programs.
Child care resource and referral serves 365 parents from 11 companies.
1989
Child care resource and referral is made available to all families, free of charge.
1990
Child care resource and referral services grow rapidly, expanding to 75 companies and handling 180 intake calls each month.
"Family Child Care: Building a Bright Future" award-winning video is produced for parents and caregivers about quality home-based child care.
1991
In collaboration with University of Texas, Project PEACH is designed to reduce hazards in family child care homes.
Initiatives for Children launches Child Care Aware, a consumer education campaign about quality child care.
1992
We create Corporate HANDS, the nation's largest locally-managed business collaboration to enhance quality and availability of child care in Greater Houston.
One of three model sites statewide is created to increase availability of child care options for special needs children through collaboration with local organizations, enhanced referrals to parents, and child care training.
1994
Initiatives for Children introduces Family to Family training in Spanish and Vietnamese.
1995
Referral services are expanded to include public and private schools and parenting support services.
Training is provided to 8,800 caregivers and $187,000 in grants is awarded to child care programs for educational equipment and materials.
1996
7,300 families are served with referral and consultation services about child care, schools and parenting classes.
1997
Greater Houston Collaborative for Children, a collaboration of foundations interested in funding multi-agency collaborations to serve young children and their families, is formed. Its mission to foster healthy child and family development through community partnerships emphasizing collaboration.
1998
Initiatives for Children and Neighborhood Centers, Inc. are selected to receive five-year grants from Greater Houston Collaborative for Children. With this funding, Initiatives for Children launches the Family-Centered Child Care Collaborative.
Initiatives for Children publishes child care resource and referral information on web-accessible database.
2002
Bright Beginnings, funded by ExxonMobil and sponsored by United Way, is launched to dramatically improve child care quality at participating centers.
2002-2006
Greater Houston Collaborative for Children and Initiatives for Children work together on three major collaborations: Early Connections, a public awareness campaign on the importance of the early years; Preschool for ALL, a research and policy initiative to expand investment in and quality of early education; and HELP for Kids, a child care quality improvement initiative in Gulfton.
2004
Initiatives for Children and Greater Houston Collaborative for Children merge to form Collaborative for Children as we know it today.
2008
Collaborative for Children launches College Bound from Birth, an intensive child care quality improvement initiative, in Houston's Sunnyside neighborhood.
We enhance our child care referral service by adding information on how programs rank on nationally recognized standards of quality such as teacher-to-child ratios and training. The service is renamed QualiFind.
Hurricane Ike hits the Texas Gulf Coast resulting in severe damage to hundreds of child care programs. We work with funders and partners to provide grants and training to almost 400 impacted child care programs.
2009-2011
As a result of the economic recession's impact on child care providers, Collaborative for Children receives a federal stimulus grant to provide teacher training, classroom and outdoor equipment, development of online courses, and an expansion of the QualiFind resource and referral service.
2010
Collaborative for Children begins offering the Parents as Teachers national parenting curriculum to families with children up to 36 months of age.
2015
After a successful pilot in Sunnyside, the College Bound from Birth program expands to the Aldine neighborhood.
As the state's contractor to implement the updated Texas Rising Star quality rating improvement system in the 13-county area, Collaborative for Children recruits and provides mentoring services for child care providers to receive their new Texas Rising Star certification.
2016
College Bound from Birth expands to Houston's Third Ward.
2017
Greater Northside becomes the fourth neighborhood in the College Bound from Birth program.
2018
Melanie Johnson, Ed.D., becomes president and CEO of Collaborative for Children. The President's Circle is launched.
2019
Collaborative for Children conducts an extensive agency-wide evaluation and develops a forward-thinking plan to ensure Houston-area children learn 21st century skills for tomorrow's workforce. The agency receives a $3 million grant from the Texas Workforce Commission to establish a Child Care Business Accelerator to improve the quality of child care in Texas and to increase the number of Texas Rising Star providers. The Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Policy Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy and the May's Business School are partner on the accelerator project. Collaborative for Children hosts its first President's Circle reception and breakfast.
2020
Collaborative for Children begins to test pilot innovative programs, including emergent literacy, dual generation learning and digital literacy, for its 2021-25 vision plan. The agency seeks to improve child outcomes and equip children with the 21st skills they will need for the future workforce.