Consider Carissa Phelps. Successful lawyer. Prosperous businesswoman. Author of an up-coming book. Former commercially sexually exploited child. Something doesn’t fit there? You might be surprised…
For those of you who follow the fight against human trafficking in this country, Carissa Phelps is known as an incredible advocate for action. The subject of a powerful documentary called Carissa, and now an author of a book that tells her incredible story, Carissa was a runaway living on the streets in Fresno, and caught up in a world of crime and prostitution at 12 …

Every year, The Junior League has our own little Academy Awards presentation. Held at the AJLI Annual Conference, the Junior League Awards program recognizes individual Leagues and League members for outstanding work, done on a scale that is impressive to all of us – precisely because we what it takes to perform at these high levels.
The 2012 Award winners as presented in San Francisco tell the tale.

Mary Harriman Community Leadership Award: New Orleans was still reeling from the human and economic devastation of Hurricane Katrina when Anne McDonald Milling formed …

The Junior League of San Antonio (JLSA) Active Member took a 12-month assignment with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Rule of Law Program in Kabul where she is a Senior Legal Advisor who mentors Afghani women prosecutors and judges. In this exclusive interview she shares some of her first impressions of the culture, the justice system, and the women she counsels.

By a fortunate accident of the calendar, this year’s Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc.’s Annual Conference comes during National Volunteer Week (April 15-21). That makes this a particularly good time to celebrate the power of the volunteer.
Because voluntarism is both the legacy and the mandate we received from our founder, Mary Harriman, we applaud National Volunteer Week, now in its 38th year, for shining a light on the power of the volunteer in creating lasting community impact.
But the missing link in many volunteer experiences – and the thing that …

National Nutrition Month may be over for this year, but let’s talk about our Kids in the Kitchen program, which is the recipient of a $75,000 award from Kashi as part of The Kashi REAL Project™, an initiative designed to raise awareness of the Real Food Deficit and amplify the work of nonprofit organizations like The Junior League that are working to keep “real food” in the minds and hands of communities throughout the country.
But the great thing about the Kashi award is how it will be used – to …

What is the value of a Junior League ‘education’?
Just ask Carol Rasco.
As president for the last 10 years of Reading is Fundamental, the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the U.S., Carol has been a tireless advocate for getting books into the hands of children at an early age, particularly those who are growing up in homes without books.
Before going to RIF, she was the executive director for government relations at the College Board. Earlier, as senior adviser to former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, she was …

When Jean Webb Vaughan Smith died in January in Los Angeles, at the age of 93, she was best known to many as a close friend of Nancy and Ronald Reagan and a Washington insider in the Eisenhower and Reagan administrations. Fair on both counts.

But Jean was also a true Junior Leaguer.

At a time when women “do” many things, it’s easy to forget the trailblazers who were unusual precisely because they were women who reached high positions despite their gender at a time when women weren’t expected to.
Consider Oveta Culp Hobby.
By the time she died at the age of 90 in 1995, Oveta had been the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services), the first commanding officer of the Women’s Army Corps, and publisher of the Houston Post, for more …

Maybe. The fact is, millions of Americans live in what the USDA defines as a food desert: a low-income census tract whose residents have low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. (To see where the closest food desert is to your home, check the USDA’s interactive map here.)
Nutrition has been a core element of The Junior League’s Mission going all the way back to Mary Harriman and her work with poor immigrant families in New York City 110 years ago. The Kids in the Kitchen program is AJLI’s …

In business, picking the right name for your product is important. Sounds like the Junior League of Lancaster has got that figured out.
In 2010, JLL started a High School Girls Business Plan Competition. Great program – designed to promote business knowledge for girls, giving them a foundation for success as they pursue careers beyond high school – but kind of a clunky name. Enter Girls in Business, the program’s new name. Says Kirsty Houck, Girls in Business Assistant Chair: “We are excited about our new name because we feel that …