Bridging the Gap Respecting Junior League’s History While Embracing the Future

Bridging the Gap

By creating a system that continually improves on itself and leaning into the uncertainty of the future, and fortified in the strength of our shared history, Junior League members continue to affect real and measurable change each year, not in spite of, but because of the challenges in the world around them.

By: Lauren Neil-Jeffrey

Mary Harriman

When the COVID-19 global pandemic threatened the mission, JLA and other Leagues around the world, knowing that their initiatives would be more essential than ever, rose to the challenge.

In 1901, Mary Harriman, the debutante daughter of railroad executive E. H. Harriman was witness to the plight of migrant communities in her home of New York City. She was a 19-year-old socially conscious college student, and she was determined to help. Along with a group of like-minded friends, Mary founded an organization that recognized a problem and ignited action towards solving it. Within a year, there were 80 women ready to help improve the health, nutrition, and literacy of New Yorkers on the Lower East

Side of Manhattan.

These young women were quickly faced with the reality that their compassion and determination alone were not sufficient to affect change. They needed to be armed with the skills to strategize, organize, and communicate with each other as well as the people they were determined to aid. With this realization, the original Junior League was transformed from a group of volunteers into a training and service organization dedicated to the development of their community through the development of each other.

From that point forward, year after year, new chapters developed in new cities. The established groups with successful models, sharing what they have learned about the deployment of resources with these added chapters, and sharing their strategies to form an alliance that broadened not only in geography but in their mission, ability, and will.

In the first 20 years of Junior League, members continued to support health, nutrition, education, and promoting access to the arts. They also marched for women’s suffrage and aided the Allies in World War I by selling war bonds and serving in Army hospitals. The end of the 1920s saw Junior League women respond to the Great Depression by opening nutrition centers, day nurseries for working mothers, and training schools for nurses.

Our local chapter, The Junior League of Austin (JLA) was established in 1934. By World War II, local members joined with Junior Leagues around the country and used their well-practiced skills in organization and the deployment of resources to chair hundreds of war-related organizations throughout the country.

In the 1960s and 70s, many cities throughout the United States and other countries experienced widespread social turbulence. Junior Leagues again proved their ability to adjust their response as the needs of their communities changed and responded with adapted programs including medical and alcohol dependency clinics, adoption services, and environmental initiatives.

In their histories, Junior League chapters have faced challenges unique to their communities. The Junior League of Austin, for example, faced incredulity when then-organizers purchased a building on Parkcrest Drive in Northwest Austin in 1983. Those forward-thinking women established a place where they held meetings, planned, acquired and stored items essential for their projects, and also created income by leasing space to retail tenants. The plan was sound and the numbers were clear, yet they were asked where their husbands were. Unphased by the criticism, JLA thrived in that location, brainstorming, planning, and preparing signature fundraising events such as A Christmas Affair (ACA), which is now considered the kick-off to the Austin holiday season, and KICS – Kids In Cool Shoes, a program allowing students in need to have new, well-fitting shoes. Volunteers also implemented community programs like FIT – Food In Tummies, which provides healthy food over the weekend to children experiencing meal uncertainty and Con Mi MADRE , a program helping Latinas and their mothers thrive through educational opportunities. Con Mi MADRE saw such success under the JLA umbrella that it has become a separate program that flourishes on its own, a testament to the diligent volunteers and systems that created it. In addition to these programs, JLA also offers a Spanish immersion program, providing optional classes for members to learn to speak the language.

After 30 years of successful volunteerism and activities that prepared members for leadership, JLA outgrew the space on Parkcrest. Armed with the experience and knowledge of those who came before them, a new home, the Community Impact Center (CIC), was designed, contracted, and built. The beautiful CIC not only offers a larger and more modern space for JLA primary missions, but also a place

for other community groups to plan and celebrate their own service initiatives, events, and milestones. Speaking of milestones, the anniversary of the CIC is October 17th!

When the COVID-19 global pandemic threatened the mission, JLA and other chapters of the Association of Junior Leagues International rose to the challenge knowing that their initiatives would be more essential than ever. Our women in leadership quickly made use of new technology to pivot to online meetings, training opportunities, and events.

Last year, JLA held a virtual edition of ACA and a socially distant Coats for Kids event that distributed over 28,000 winter coats for Central Texas children. Members continued to feed hungry children through our FIT program while remaining vigilant about health and safety. In the spring of 2020, our membership finished out the league year by holding a virtual Austin Entertains event, showcasing local chefs and partaking in food and libations from the safety of participants’ homes.

Demonstrated in each of these examples is the mission of JLA and The Association of Junior Leagues International. It’s our mission--in action--to serve our community while training and preparing women for teamwork and leadership. In order to perpetuate that mission, League members use the training compiled through the life of Junior League and build upon it. In each year of the Junior League's existence, members have added some of their individuality, diversity, and experience. It is each unique perspective that adds value to the whole. It is this rich history that provides the tools to tackle the future. It is this road that the force of one of the largest and most effective volunteer organizations in the world has paved. Junior League members may not yet have solutions to all the challenges we currently face, but 120 years of experience says we will not stop until we do.

These young women were quickly faced with the reality that their compassion and determination alone were not sufficient to affect change. They needed to be armed with the skills to strategize, organize, and communicate with each other as well as the people they were determined to aid.