History: Since its inception in 1926, the Junior League of Savannah has raised and awarded millions of dollars to meet local needs in areas ranging from education to health care to children's advocacy to parenting. In the past year alone, the members of the league have volunteered over 20,000 hours.
Funding: Every year, the League raises and invests over $100,000 in our community through League-sponsored community projects, Kids Who Care scholarships, and Community Assistance Funds. The Annual Thrift Sale, held the first weekend of October each fall, is a primary source of funding for the League. Funding is also generated through the sales of Junior League Cookbooks which are available for purchase on our website and in local retail stores. Proceeds from the sale are returned to the community through Junior League community improvement projects.
To complete applications for Junior League of Savannah Community Projects, Community Assistance Funds or Kids Who Care Scholarships, visit our applications page.
Community Projects:
The Junior League of Savannah annually focuses its support on a variety of community projects, committing financial support and hundreds of volunteer hours in an effort to fulfill our mission of improving the community through effective action and leadership.
The Junior League of Savannah begins our second year in our new focus area “Women and Children's Advocacy”. This year we will give more than $100,000 and countless volunteer hours to the community during the 2009-2010 year. The organization selects a focus area for a three- to five-year period and completes projects within that focus-area each year. All community projects receive funding and volunteers; partners are selected through a call for applications.
2010-2011 Community Projects:
- Golden Isles - League members residing in this area will complete the “Women and Children” focused projects with various community agencies selected by a call for applications process.
- South Carolina Lowcountry - League members residing in this area will complete “Women and Children” focused projects with various community agencies selected by a call of applications process.
- Interfaith Hospitality Network: Family Mentoring Program – The aim of the Family Mentoring Program is to help families learn and practice life skills specific to goal setting, action planning, problem solving, and financial planning/budgeting. This program is based on a training manual that has already been developed. JLS volunteers will work in small groups, using the training manual already in place, to develop and implement workshops to help families, specifically homeless women and children) develop these very important skills.
- Savannah Chatham County Public School System: In2Books – The Junior League of Savannah will be volunteering to support SCCPSS’s new eMentoring program “In2Books”. This program fosters reading, writing, and critical thinking skills by connecting caring adult mentors referred to as "pen pals" with children in the classroom.
- West Broad Street YMCA : Pathways to Change – The organization is located between two Housing Authority neighborhoods, where households are headed by single females. The goal of this organization is to help the families in these communities achieve self-sufficiency while overcoming barriers that lack of education and job skills can provide. This program has a two-fold purpose. The program is intended to provide a safe, nurturing and healthy environment in which children aged 6 weeks to school age can learn and to provide childcare while parents are working to improving educational and/or job skills. JLS volunteers will work directly with these families in the following ways: working with preschoolers to enhance early learning, tutoring children after school hours, and counseling parents in the areas of job training and connecting to other community resources. Volunteers will advocate for these families in an effort to help them become more self-sufficient.
- Memorial University Medical Center: Medical Play & Emotional Advocacy - Medical Play and Emotional Advocacy for Pediatric Patients is a program aimed at addressing emotional needs as a well as assisting in preparing children for procedures, helping them process medical events, and guiding them to an understanding of their illness. JLS volunteers will work with a Child-Life specialist to provide services such as general play, coloring, putting together puzzles, playing games, reading books, talking/listening and other activities. Volunteers will also be able to work as story readers (books designed to explain some of the foreign events and things a child will encounter at a hospital), special activity/project volunteer, holiday decorators, room “moms” as well as planning and hosting movie nights for inpatient families. The goal of these activities is provide children a safe way to express their feelings and lessen emotional distress.
- Done In A Day - League members complete one-day, "Women and Children" focused projects for a variety of non-profit community agencies selected by a call for applications projects. Click here to read more about Done in a Day Projects
- Kids In the Kitchen - Savannah League members will host an event to educate children about healthy food choices. Members will also assist the South Carolina Low Country and Golden Isles groups with their Kids in the Kitchen initiative.Click here to read more about Kids in the Kitchen
Community Assistance Funds:
Community Assistance Funds (CAF) are available to all local 501 (C)(3) organizations. CAF is awarded once a year in the spring and represents an additional financial commitment to the community through partnerships with other local community service agencies. Applications are due in mid-December of each year. Click here to read about the Spring 2010 Community Assistance Fund grant recipients.
Kids Who Care Scholarships:
Kids Who Care Scholarships are awarded in the spring. Five $1000 scholarships will be awarded to high school seniors from Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, Bullock, Jasper, Liberty, Glynn, and Beaufort (SC) counties who have demonstrated a strong commitment to volunteerism and outstanding community involvement. These scholarships represent a $5,000 annual commitment by the League to the future generation. Applications are due in mid-March of each year. Click here to read about the Spring 2010 Kids Who Care Scholarship recipients.
