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children

It’s Always Nice to Get a ‘Thank You’!

As a 109-year-old organization dedicated to civic leadership and developing the potential of individual women as leaders in their communities, the Junior Leagues are usually the ones giving out the awards. So the decision by Action for Children North Carolina to honor all 11 Junior Leagues in North Carolina with the prestigious 2010 N.C. Children’s Lifetime Legacy Award was a pleasant surprise.
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Even If Your Kid’s Not a Bully, We Bet She Knows One

It often seems the only time most of us worry about bullying is when it happens to one of our kids – or when something goes deeply wrong with someone else’s kid, as happened recently in South Hadley, MA, where 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself.

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, surveys indicate that as many as half of all children are bullied at some time during their school years, and at least 10% are bullied on a regular basis. The Junior Leaguestake this problem seriously. In fact, supporting the welfare of our children has been a central focus across our 109-year-history.

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What Happens When You’re Too Old for Santa Claus…and Foster Care?

There are approximately 500,000 young Americans in foster care around the country, according to the most recent federal AFCARS data. While most returned to their birth families, went to live with other family members or were adopted, the 14% who age out or otherwise drop out of foster care may find that the biggest challenge in leaving the system is survival.

“Statistics prove that the physical, emotional and social outcomes for ‘aged-out’ foster kids is often bad—bad for the kids and bad for the community that often has no way of dealing with them,” said Debbie Robinson, President of The Association of Junior Leagues International, which represents 292 individual Junior Leagues in four countries. “For all of the money, time and effort we devote to keeping kids in foster care, unfortunately they are too often left on their own when they ‘graduate.’”

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The CRC @ 20

CRC. It’s not one of those acronyms that rolls off your tongue. But the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – which, 20 years ago this month, became the first legally binding international convention to affirm human rights for all children – really did make a difference.

Looking back on this landmark action, we also see the value in small steps made by volunteer advocacy groups like The Junior League in advance of big steps made by international bodies like United Nations, with the CRC, or governmental organizations. Because, as we see it, passionate volunteer groups – wherever they are – can set the stage for policy solutions to tough issues.

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