Good question.
It’s no secret that what we call voluntarism is at the heart of what it means to be a Junior League member. We volunteer our time to create lasting community impact. Period.
But the Junior League of Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Inc. has come up with an interesting twist on voluntarism by involving members’ children in a project they can literally get their hands around. It’s called Little Hands, Big Difference.
JLNVB member and Community Vice President Laura Bangor explains: “I was Membership VP last year and we did a focus group asking …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Not much.
KITK programs typically take place in the spring. Halloween, well, you know.
KITK focuses on helping children make healthy choices about food and nutrition. Halloween, well, you know.
KITK is in its sixth straight year at more than 200 Junior Leagues. Halloween has been around a lot longer.
We won’t tell you again that the average American consumes 25 pounds of candy each year, much of which is consumed by kids (particularly at Halloween!).
We also won’t suggest that you try to keep your kids away from trick-or-treating.
And we won’t ask you to …

Well, we have one now. October 24 is the first annual Food Day in the United States. Sponsored by an advocacy group called Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Food Day organization “seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.”
Funny thing is, Junior Leagues have been on this track for a long while. A hundred years …

That’s a question many people who volunteer their time and talent have asked, at one time for another.
In answering that question, at least at The Junior League, you need to look at a longer perspective than just what we did today, last month or last year. Take just one important focus issue for Leagues throughout our 110-history: literacy, particularly for children.
More than half of our 292 Leagues focus on literacy and related educational and knowledge-sharing programs that provide crucial resources to children and others in need. While the programs vary …

. . .that knows no borders. Today, around the world, there are more people held in slavery than at the height of the transatlantic slave trade. The United Nations estimates that 12 million people worldwide are exploited through forced labor and the commercial sex trade, and in the U.S. alone, one hundred thousand minors are believed to be victims of sexual exploitation.
What are you going to do about it?
 
Learn
Find out more about the problem of modern-day slavery and how you can help to eradicate it:
Government Resources

United States Department of Justice
Characteristics …