The Junior League of Boca Raton was honored with the COMMUNITY IMPACT AWARD for improving, in a sustainable way, the lives of low-income farmworkers in its work with In the Pines.
Working in concert with its community partners—the Farmworker Children’s Council and St. Jude Church—the League developed a rich variety of services critical to keeping the families who reside at ITP intact, and pioneered a program to replace 20 of ITP’s outdated residences with dwellings that are LEED Platinum-certified.
To keep the rent affordable, the League took a cost-efficient approach to environmentally …

Three months after the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, MO in May, survivors are still picking up the pieces and putting them back together. But life goes on, and one important facet of life in any town is the first day of school. And even though six of Joplin’s 18 public schools were wrecked in the storm, and three other schools need to undergo major repairs, school opened on schedule this year.
Because there isn’t a Junior League in Joplin, the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri stepped in to help …

Like many community-focused nonprofit organizations, many Junior Leagues around the country offer graduating seniors a chance to apply for a merit-based scholarship. While students typically need high academic credentials to qualify, one other thing makes a successful candidate stand out: a commitment to hands-on, focused community service. We call it “voluntarism.”
For example, the Junior League of Morristown has awarded 112 scholarships totaling over $155,000 since starting its Voluntarism Scholarships in 1986 as a gift to the community as part of JLM’s 50th anniversary celebration. Scholarships are awarded based on the …

Junior Leagues are usually focused on issues and problems in their own communities. But what can we do to make a difference when the issue we want to address goes beyond our community’s borders?
A joint action by the Junior Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee (CalSPAC), which represents more than 11,000 members of 16 Junior Leagues across California (including the Junior League of Los Angeles), and the Junior League of Los Angeles (JLLA) provides a useful model.
Kelly Abraham Martinez was a young mother who took her own life in …

Yes.  Just ask the Junior League of Wilmington.  By donating its archives – approximately seventy-five linear feet of documents that provide a comprehensive overview of the League’s rich, 93-year history – to the Special Collections Department of the University of Delaware Library, detailed information on the League will be available to students and scholars delving into Delaware’s social history over the last century.
JLW’s contributions to Delaware history included initiatives like the Foster Care Review Board, prison reform, literacy, public health initiatives, well-baby clinics and health centers, the Ronald McDonald House, …

Good question.  Like many Leagues, the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay (JLOEB) has wrestled with it for decades.  And the answer, at least in the past, has been: Start something that lasts.
Take domestic violence.
JLOEB started the Family Stress Center in 1973 as a community-based organization serving Contra Costa County with counseling, educational programs, social services and in-home support and ran the organization successfully before it was reincorporated as a stand-alone 501c3 in 1979.  In 2010, with JLOEB’s support, the Family Stress Center merged with another major nonprofit in Contra Costa …

No one ever said that Sustainers are not an amazing group of women.  Just look at Donna Fales.  As Captain of the USA Althea Gibson Cup Team, Donna led the team to Gold at the recent International Tennis Federation World Team Tennis Championship in Antalya, Turkey.  The team, sponsored by the United States Tennis Association, defeated Germany by a score of 2-1 in the final match after defeating Ireland, Switzerland and Australia on its way to the finals.  Donna, who never lost a set in all her singles & doubles …

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.

Eighteen years ago, the Junior League of Salt Lake City started an annual, two-day event for Utah families needing routine medical services and community assistance information. The event, called CARE Fair, brings together more than 50 different community agencies to provide free medical examinations and immunizations as well as physicals, hearing, vision and dental screening, diabetes and cholesterol screening, breast exams and HIV testing. Vouchers for free mammograms off-site are made available. Participants may be eligible for health- and safety-related items such as car seats and bike helmets.

Maybe not.  But we’re probably close.  Because of our location, transportation network and diverse population, New Jersey, like New York City, is a hub for all kinds of human trafficking.  Just recently, The New York Times reported that eight people were indicted in Brooklyn, NY on charges that include sex trafficking or promoting prostitution of women and girls as young as 15 years of age from local schools.  A simple Google search shows that victims in a Jersey City prostitution ring were induced to use heroin and cocaine and beaten …