Junior League of San Jose Inc

Women Building Better Communities

The Junior League of San Jose is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. We are a charitable organization focused on making lasting community change.

During our 47-year history, JLSJ has given over $5 million to the community and close to 750,000 hours of volunteer service. JLSJ has played an integral part in the development, improvement, and support of Santa Clara County. Our current Community Program, which strives to help young children enter elementary school ready to learn and thrive, focuses our League's volunteer and financial resources to address an unmet need in the community through collaborative projects with partner agencies on the these impact areas: Nutrition & health, Kindergarten readiness through third-grade reading level, and Literacy & early parent education.  Current and past projects include:

Make Build Play (MBP), a collaboration with Resource Area For Teachers (RAFT), expands access to "learn by doing" science, technology, engineering & math (STEM) educational opportunities for children ages 4-8 beyond the school day.

Kids In the Kitchen (KITK), an initiative through the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI), empowers children and their parents to make healthy lifestyle choices and help reverse the growth of childhood obesity. This year, we have been making monthly outreach to low-income families in partnership with Sunday Friends.

The Family Enrichment Program, an collaboration with Grail Family Services, has been giving parents of children ages 0-5 the tools they need to address and improve their children's social, emotional and physical health—preparing their children for success in school.

The Wonder Cabinet, a special museum-inside-a-museum collaboration with Children's Discovery Museum (CDM) San Jose, has continued to inspire children under 5 years old to explore, play and make their own discoveries of the world around them. We also helped to bring the wonders of the Wonder Cabinet out into the community through the traveling Wonder Quilt program.

First Teachers Training Program, in partnership with Bring Me a Book Foundation, sought to engage and educate parents, caregivers and pre-school teachers in the importance of reading aloud with their children thereby fostering an early love of books, reading and learning.

Our Done-in-a-Day (DIAD) committee partners with local non-profit agencies on short-term projects that directly relate to our Community Program.

Our annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon (VRL) celebrates outstanding volunteers (outside of JLSJ) and promotes voluntarism in Santa Clara County at this heart-warming luncheon and through our media partners for over four decades.

Collectively as California State Public Affairs Committee (SPAC), JLSJ and 16 other Junior Leagues in California actively work with state legislators to advocate on specific legislations focusing on family support, education, health, and violence prevention. SPAC has successfully sponsored and supported many legislations with notable socioeconomic impact in communities across our state:

• Establishing the "Children's Bicycle Helmet Law"
• Enhancing penalties for committing domestic violence in the presence of a minor
• Establishing the "Kids License Plate" to fund child abuse prevention and injury
• Providing breast cancer treatment for uninsured women and raising awareness on how breast tissue density may obscure cancer detection in mammography
• Declaring May as Perinatal Depression Awareness Month in California
• Helping human trafficking victims

 

The Junior League of San Jose has an incubator of future community leaders—training volunteers and developing the potential of women through annual committee placements that encompass nearly every aspect of running an non-profit organization. Every leadership opportunity within JLSJ is dedicated solely to women. With over 700 members, JLSJ provides the ability to develop leadership skills at every level of the organization, from committee members to the Board of Directors. JLSJ also provides training opportunities to prepare women for their lives, careers and community impact. Many of our members have gone on to lead other Silicon Valley non-profit organizations as well as for-profit businesses and serve as elected officials in state and local governments.