About Us
ABOUT US
The Partnerships for America’s mission is to create lasting and positive change in the lives of families, especially children, through mentoring, educational and recreational programs and to empower parents to provide for their children so that they grow into productive, happy and loving adults.
Through our local and national associations with other not-for-profits and community-based organizations we are able to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable and low-income families, and prepare them for the future.
Our founding service, The Cuddle Me Program Diaper Bank was founded in 2005 after a frightened teen mother was found sleeping in a bank’s ATM vestibule, having run away from home in fear that her infant daughter would be taken from her. A concerned bank manager called on Ann McIntyre, a bank customer and active member of several community agencies.
At the time, Ann was not able to find a program available to provide for the mother and her baby, so she did what the bank officials suspected she might; she temporarily took them into her own home. In the process of getting diapers and formula and contacting friends to borrow baby equipment, Ann began to think about creating a program to supplement the offerings of existing services, like food banks and other community service agencies, to better meet the specific needs of families with infants and toddlers.
The rest, as they say, is history. Ann and others continued to build on the program by forming partnerships with scores of agencies in their local New Jersey area and beyond.
A Snapshot of Our History
2003
Founder Ann McIntyre began the Partnerships for America by connecting low-income families with affordable housing options in the Camden, New Jersey area. The efforts included credit counseling, mortgage advice, housing counseling and training programs on how to take care of your house.
2005
2005 was a turning point for the organization, when the Cuddle Me Program Diaper Bank was formed. Within six months of the program’s start, regular donations of diapers, clothing and baby equipment began to be available for families with children up to the age of three.
2006-2007
Building on the success of the founding program, the Partnerships began offering resources for children and families with special needs. Expanding the diaper and clothing distributions events, we added partners in Maine and New York. In 2006, the Partnerships of America was named Rutgers University Charity of Choice for the first of five years in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
2010-2011
Between 2010-2011, continued education efforts, such as the Trailblazer and Future Leaders Programs were introduced for older children. To expose the children to new opportunities, we took trips to the Baltimore Aquarium, Hersey Park (PA), Turtleback Zoo (North NJ), the National Constitution Center and Dorney Park? (PA).
In 2011, the Cuddle Me Program Diaper Bank expanded to include food bank distributions of baby formula and snacks for toddlers up to age five.
2013
In 2013, we continued to expand our office in Fort Pierce & Port St. Lucie, FL. A Partnerships for America office also opened in Bristol, TN. Both locations focused primarily on diaper distribution.
In that same year, we took children in our Trailblazers Program to Lego Fest in Atlanta.
2015
The Cuddle Me Program continued to build to include additional clothing, toys and baby equipment, through our partnerships with Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Oshkosh, Baby Depot and Buy Buy Baby.
2020
We currently have 31 partnerships across the country with not-for-profits and community organizations that work to meet the health, safety and development needs of children from low-income families.
We continue to grow our services through the introduction of new programs every year. We sincerely hope you will join us in investing in our children and our future.