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 …

A buzz was in the air in Baltimore last week at AJLI’s Fall Leadership Conference, which drew 300 delegates from 175 Leagues and underscored the Association’s road to Transformation. The three-day meeting featured new workshops, engaging dialogue, and a keynote address that challenged the fundamental premise of charity and the nonprofit sector.
The conference opened on Thursday night with a reception at the Charm City’s National Aquarium, where in addition to mingling with fellow League members, attendees could mingle with the aquarium’s resident dolphins and jelly fish.
Friday morning brought an Opening …

Robust initiatives in e-learning, training, fund development, and Action Learning are shared; Nicholas Kristof delivers keynote on human trafficking and women’s empowerment;  and delegates pass dues increase— first in 10 years
 
Overcast skies failed to dampen the mood inside Philadelphia’s Downtown Marriott during AJLI’s 89th Annual Conference, May 12 to 14, which drew a total of 645 attendees.
“TRANSFORMATION”
Thursday’s opening session began with AJLI’s new inspirational video entitled “Transformation,” which played on twin screens as delegates processed into the grand ballroom and likened
The Junior League to the “most relevant and meaningful organization …

A Rutgers University freshman jumps to his death off the George Washington Bridge after an intimate moment with a romantic partner is recorded and broadcast over the Internet by his roommate. A 13-year-old girl hangs herself in her bedroom closet after being slandered on Myspace by a friend, the friend’s parent, and the parent’s employee who collectively pretend to be a male peer in order to befriend her. Every month the news includes stories of predators posing as teens in order to pursue adolescent boys and girls over the Internet …

One woman’s faith gave her the stamina to fight segregation and wound up winning her a Profile in Courage Award.
 

On a Thursday afternoon roughly two months ago, Elizabeth Redenbaugh had the feeling she was the target of a very slick joke. Earlier in the week, on the very day an oncologist revealed that her husband had an 11-pound tumor on one of his kidneys, she’d received an email from a staffer at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The person asked if she’d be available for …

Wife? Mother? First Lady? Cancer survivor? Activist for women’s issues? Substance abuse prevention trailblazer?
All of those descriptions fit the woman whose death touched so many people, including some too young to know her in the midst of the public phase of her life.
But one element was largely overlooked in the media coverage touched off by her death on July 8 at age 93: Betty Ford was a Junior Leaguer, through and through, for most of her life.
Raised in Grand Rapids, Elizabeth Ann Bloomer became a member of the Junior League …

In a nation criss-crossed by strip malls dotted with fast-food restaurants where one thousand-calorie meals are available in an instant for less than what it costs to buy a gallon of gas, and where no fewer than five shows dedicated purely to cooking tantalize viewers from flat-screen televisions daily, it’s hard to imagine that nearly 15 percent of U.S. residents will go without a nutritious meal every day.
Not only will they not be digging into a terrine of torched foie gras or licking their fingers after devouring a technicolor slice …

There’s no doubt that law enforcement and social welfare agencies are on the front line of dealing with child abuse.  But what can the rest of us do?
Because April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month, that’s a good question.
The Junior League of Springfield came up a great answer five years ago: Build a “crisis nursery” in Greene County, Missouri to give kids in troubled homes a place to go when child abuse is threatened or suspected or when the safety of the home is otherwise at risk.
Reacting to data that …

While the National Women’s History Museum is still waiting for a permanent home in Washington, DC, Mary Harriman has found a home on its website, where she joins other Junior League member such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Chase Smith and Shirley Temple Black as examples of American women who helped to shape American history, politics and institutions for the better.
 
The National Women’s History Museum was founded in 1996 by Karen K. Staser to preserve and celebrate the role of women across our country’s history.  At this point, it exists only …

Reading about the life of Margaret Chase Smith is like reading a short history of America in the 20th Century.  Born December 14, 1897 in Skowhegan, Maine, Margaret Chase worked briefly worked as a teacher, telephone operator and newspaper circulation manager.  She became involved with women’s organizations, including The Junior League, in the 1920s, and married Clyde H. Smith in 1930.
When Clyde, an aspiring politician, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1936, Margaret went along with him – as his secretary. But when Clyde died four …