For more than four decades, Rainbow Days has stood as a steady source of hope for children and families navigating some of life’s most difficult circumstances. Serving more than 30,000 children and youth annually across the Dallas area, Rainbow Days addresses the growing and complex needs of young people impacted by poverty, homelessness, trauma, and family instability through a comprehensive, relationship-based approach that combines prevention, emotional support, and skill-building.
The need for this work is significant. One in four children in the United States lives in poverty, and 45 percent have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience. More than 18 million children live with a parent struggling with addiction and over 2.5 million experience homelessness each year. In Dallas alone, thousands of children face housing instability annually, often compounded by exposure to domestic violence, incarceration of a family member, abuse, or chronic toxic stress. These realities place children at increased risk for anxiety, mental health distress, academic challenges, and substance use later in life.
Rainbow Days exists to interrupt these cycles early by equipping children and youth with the emotional support, coping skills, and positive relationships they need to make healthy choices despite the adversities they face. All Rainbow Days programs emphasize prevention, resilience, and maintaining a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle, recognizing that early intervention is key to long-term well-being.
At the core of Rainbow Days’ work is its nationally recognized, data-driven Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG®) Program. Delivered through a peer-to-peer model, the CBSG® Program provides children ages four through seventeen with structured, evidence-based social-emotional learning in small group settings led by trained, caring facilitators. These facilitators serve not only as instructors but as trusted mentors who offer emotional support and consistency—often something missing in the lives of children experiencing instability.
The CBSG® Program is intentionally designed to create emotional and social safety through group rules, confidentiality, and predictable routines. Sessions are typically scheduled weekly or bi-weekly and last approximately the length of a regular classroom period. Each group includes ten sessions, with additional sessions recommended for some older youth. Small group sizes allow time for discussion, skills practice, bonding, and stress reduction, helping children build confidence and trust while learning how to navigate emotions, relationships, and decision-making.
Rainbow Days’ programming focuses on five core messages that guide all services: self-awareness, social awareness and competence, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, and a sense of purpose and future. These skills are particularly critical for children living in high-risk situations, who are often least likely to have access to consistent emotional support or opportunities to practice healthy coping strategies.
Beyond its support groups, Rainbow Days offers a wide array of supportive services that reinforce these core messages and meet children where they are. One of the organization’s longest-running initiatives is Family Connection, which began in 1989 to fill a significant gap in the continuum of care for homeless children and their families. Family Connection provides supportive services for families living in emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, transitional living centers, and motels—environments where children often experience chronic stress and disruption.
A key component of Family Connection is Rainbow Days’ summer day camp programming, which gives children the opportunity to practice life skills in fun, child-appropriate settings away from the shelters. Getting away from shelter environments, even temporarily, is essential to children’s mental and behavioral health. Transportation is provided to ensure access for all participants. These camps offer children the chance to simply be kids while learning, growing, and building confidence.
Kids’ University is an educational camp experience held on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas. Designed to make learning fun and aspirational, the program promotes the importance of completing high school and pursuing higher education while helping children develop social competence and self-esteem. Camp Bravo!, a visual and performing arts camp hosted at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, culminates in a final performance for parents and volunteers and encourages creativity, teamwork, and self-expression. Outdoor Adventure Camp provides a four-day recreational experience that includes swimming, nature walks, rock climbing, arts and crafts, and team-building activities, reinforcing the value of physical activity, nutrition, and collaboration.
Rainbow Days also hosts special mentored events throughout the year that provide children and families with meaningful experiences outside of shelter settings. These excursions allow children to bond with caring adults while participating in activities many of their peers take for granted. Large annual events include Saturday with Santa, Easter Eggstravaganza, and the Back-to-School Celebration, along with smaller outings such as trips to the zoo or sporting events.
Saturday with Santa is Rainbow Days’ annual Christmas celebration for children experiencing homelessness and their parents residing in Dallas-area shelters and transitional living centers. Each year, more than 600 children and parents gather for a festive family outing that includes a theatrical performance, refreshments, carnival-style games, stockings filled with presents, and a visit from Santa Claus himself. Easter Eggstravaganza, held at Lovers Lane Methodist Church, offers families games, food, activities, an egg hunt, and a visit from the Easter Bunny, creating joyful memories during what is often a stressful season.
The annual Back-to-School Celebration, held each August, helps ensure children begin the school year with confidence and dignity. More than 400 children from over a dozen partnering shelters receive backpacks filled with essential school supplies and new school uniforms while enjoying games, entertainment, and refreshments.
Recognizing the growing issue of hidden homelessness, Rainbow Days launched Project Hope in 2017 as a subprogram of Family Connection. Project Hope serves families living in motels across Dallas, a population often overlooked and facing significant food insecurity. Year-round services include after-school programming with CBSG® sessions, tutoring and snacks, monthly food deliveries in partnership with Crossroads Community Services, themed summer day camps, and participation in the Back-to-School Celebration.
Rainbow Days also expands its reach through Community Connection, a core program founded in 1982. Community Connection delivers the CBSG® Program and supportive services to at-risk children and youth in schools, after-school programs, youth service organizations, public housing sites, and community centers—essentially anywhere children gather regularly. This multicultural prevention program supports children whose circumstances place them at elevated risk for substance abuse, delinquency, and violence. The impact of Rainbow Days’ work is both measurable and profound. Children who participate in the CBSG® Program demonstrate increased coping skills, self-awareness, confidence, problem-solving abilities, and anti-substance use attitudes. Participants show improved classroom behavior, academic success, positive relationships, empathy, self-control, and hope for the future, while exhibiting decreased rebellious and delinquent behaviors.
By addressing both immediate needs and long-term emotional development, Rainbow Days continues to strengthen children, families, and communities across Dallas. Through compassion, evidence-based programming, and a commitment to prevention, Rainbow Days empowers young people to build healthier, more hopeful futures—one child, one family, and one supportive relationship at a time.
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Media Contact:Sharon Adams
Adams Communications Public Relations
(214) 924-9959/ [email protected]
Rainbow Days Contact: Gillian Russo
Communications & Development Coordinator
(720) 440-1347 / [email protected]
