Articles Archive for Year 2010
Members of the new California State Legislature can expect to hear from a formidable advocate with a 40-year history of fighting for women’s and children’s issues – the Junior Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee (“SPAC”), which represents the more than 11,000 members of 16 Junior Leagues across California.
Founded in 1970, California SPAC is one of The Junior League’s oldest and largest state public affairs committees, whose goals are to serve as the voice of the women and children in the communities they serve by introducing and supporting state legislation that improves the lives of women and children in the communities we serve. Other Junior League SPACs are in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington State, along with single-League advocacy groups in St. Louis and Denver. Some 95 individual Leagues with more than 52,000 members are involved these efforts across the country.
Chapter Two of The Junior League: 100 Years of Volunteer Service, entitled “Igniting the Junior League Movement,” is next up in our handy online curriculum of required reading.
The chapter covers the years 1911 to 1919, when the last lacy frills and stiff corsets of the Victorian era were giving way to an earnest and increasingly respected band of female activists greatly influenced by the rise of the Settlement House movement. Out of the stir arose the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, the Kiwanis Club, and the …
When Executive Director Susan Danish arrived at AJLI in 2003, she brought with her more than 20 years of marketing and management experience in both the business and nonprofit sectors, having worked on behalf of such mega-brands, retailers, and thought leaders as Christie’s, Calvin Klein, Clairol, Express, Procter & Gamble, and The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College.
As AJLI’s Executive Director you wear a lot of hats. How do you balance your responsibility as steward and visionary with your duties in hands-on, day-to-day management?
It really is a balancing …
We at AJLI recognize that our Sustainers are one of our most precious and powerful assets. We know that the rich lives they have led and the years of dedicated service they have provided to their communities set an example for Provisionals and Actives everywhere who are currently in the heyday of their Junior League experience.
What better way to foster enthusiasm for the transformational change that lies ahead as we fashion The Junior League into a movement for the 21st century, than to give you, the 160,000 members of The …
You know her as the founder of The Junior League. And it’s a remarkable story. At 19, a young New York debutante, daughter of one of the richest men in America, mobilizes a group of 80 other young women, hence the name “Junior” League, to work to improve child health, nutrition and literacy among poor immigrants living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Call it the multiplier effect. Sure, one League out of 292 can make a difference in its own community, but harness the power of 292 Junior Leagues and you can make a big difference around the world. The Leagues are never more powerful than when acting together, toward a common goal.
Spousal abuse was just beginning to be identified as a major social problem in the 1970s when the Junior League of Bronxville started working with the county probation department to develop court assistance programs for abused wives (and husbands). With …
What bold babe lit your fire? What daring dame do you most admire? What gutsy gal changed the way you see the world? What lioness’s legacy do you find most inspiring? Who do you think is the world’s most phenomenal female? What woman’s living the dream you have for yourself?
Are you there yet?
It’s an unpleasant topic. School districts don’t want to talk about it. Kids talk about it but don’t necessarily tell their parents about it. Parents talk about it among themselves and hope it doesn’t happen to their children.
We’re talking about cyber-bullying, and it almost always starts at school. For the most part, cyber-bullying is like other forms of bullying – and kids survive it and move on. But sometimes they don’t – as we saw in the recent suicides of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi and Massachusetts high school student Phoebe Prince.
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. First, start with what we all know – that babies are expensive. Second, understand that a single component of that cost – diapers – can be as much as $130 a month. Third, realize that the cost of purchasing these items can break a young family’s budget and that, according to a recent study by Huggies Diapers, one in three American mothers struggle to provide diapers for their infants. Finally, come to grips with the fact that lack of clean diapers can hurt …
