The Junior League of Colorado Springs (JLCS) partnered with Sky West Airlines for the 5th straight year to bring Fantasy Flight to over 50 deserving children in Colorado Springs, CO. The children and their families boarded a SkyWest jet on December 10, and took flight, destined for the North Pole. Luckily, the North Pole is closer than many of us realize to Colorado, and the flight lasted only about a half an hour.
Upon landing, the travelers were ushered into a winter wonderland. The children participated in several Christmas themed activities, …

It’s easy to forget in the bustle of our everyday lives that The Junior League has an impressive history. Not just as a 110-year-old women’s volunteer group now active in four countries, or as one of the largest and most effective nonprofit groups focused on voluntarism, but at the community level.
Consider the Junior League of Oklahoma City. In its more than 80 years of service, JLOC has done a lot to achieve lasting community impact. The League’s first project was construction of the Walnut Grove Community Center, which served approximately …

Launched in 2008, the Junior League of Philadelphia‘s (JLP) Project GREEN: Using Nature to Nurture was focused on the intersection of children’s health and wellness and the natural environment. Project GREEN was created with three projects in mind: Campus Community Gardens, the Green Volunteer Corps, and the Riverbend Environmental Science Partners Educating Children Together (RESPECT) Nature Club.
How the initiative has evolved in recent years says a lot about JLP’s commitment to its green initiative – and its willingness to change course to avoid roadblocks.
The Campus Community Gardens project was designed …

They call it relational aggression. You probably call it bullying. Or peer intimidation. Or mean girl stuff. The name doesn’t really matter. Every mother worries about it and how it affects her child. The Junior League of Ann Arbor did something about it.
JLAA funded a three-year grant to the University of Michigan’s University Center for the Child and Family to develop a program designed to decrease the incidence of relational aggression by increasing community awareness of the problem and developing key resources for use by community groups in the Ann …

Based on what the Junior League of Pensacola (JULEP) is doing with its foster care initiative, we’d say the formula is: pressing need + community support + total commitment + willingness to adapt.
JULEP is in the fifth year of a major focus on foster care, particularly as it relates to the problem of aging out, where foster kids are dropped from their programs once they hit a certain age, typically 18. JULEP’s major outreach project is Steppin’ Out, which teaches young women in foster care essential life skills they will …

Americans have had a love affair with Thanksgiving for generations (along with Canadians, though they celebrate it in October). And, while it is an intensely family-oriented holiday (with lots of football added), Thanksgiving also serves as the catalyst for many Junior League outreach programs.
That’s not surprising, given The Junior League’s long commitment to health and nutrition. But what is interesting about League programs is the variety of ways they are implemented around the basic theme of serving our communities.
For example:

The Junior League of Boca Raton, FL: Partnering with Caring Kitchen, …

Participating Junior Leagues are eligible for 70 percent of proceeds
Stunned by the U.S. Census Bureau statistic showing that in 2010 one in five U.S. children was living below the poverty line and convinced that children have the innate capacity to help one another, Junior League of the Palm Beaches Sustainer Elizabeth Truong has just authored a book entitled Donate Clothes, which teaches children, through story and illustrations, the rewards of helping others.
Available on the Web through www.sarageoffrey.com or Amazon.com, Donate Clothes is the first book in a series known as …

Junior Leaguers may not typically think of themselves as philanthropists, although what we do here meets Wikipedia’s etymological definition of the term as “the love of humanity” as well as the practical definition of “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life.”
But more than that, a surprising number of Junior League members have used the training they received here to launch separate careers or initiatives that use classic philanthropy tools to create lasting community impact.
Here are just a few examples, all former Mary Harriman Community Leadership Award winners, …

You’ve seen it in the media. You’ve talked about it with other parents. And sometimes your own daughter will open up and talk about it. It goes by a lot of names – cyberbullying…power cliques…and mean girls (they even made a movie about that). The point is, growing up is tough…and a lot of girls feel powerless.
What can we do, as parents, to help our daughters deal with the pressures that life throws at them? And what can we do, as committed volunteers, to addressing the wider needs in our …

Maybe it helps to be in LA, but the Junior League of Los Angeles has just been named the winner of a prestigious 2012 Women in Film PSA Production Award for its “Speak Up When You’re Down” campaign promoting perinatal depression awareness. The PSA, which will be developed in both English and Spanish for use in U.S. and international markets, is designed to educate women, their families and health care providers on a major health issue that affects mothers regardless of income or education.
The competition was tough. JLLA joined other …