New Year, New Leaf, Same Mission

With the advent of its current fiscal year, The Junior League of Oakland – East Bay (JLOEB) began all over again. As a volunteer organization, each year we have new leadership. This brings with it new ideas and new enthusiasm for making a difference in our neighborhoods. This year will also bring new strategy. We are launching a strategic planning process that will guide JLOEB through the next three years, and we are terribly excited about it. However, through all the changes our mission remains the same. We are an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. JLOEB has taken that mission and focused its effort on family self-sufficiency in the areas of food, clothing, housing, and jobs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

What does that all mean in a practical sense? What do we actually do? JLOEB contributes to the community in four main ways: Volunteers, Grants, Community Partnerships, and Public Affairs education. We endeavor to work with other non-profits that improve the lives of those facing poverty and struggle with food or clothing insecurity, affordable housing or homelessness, or unemployment. We see these areas as critical to the health and well-being of the communities in which we live and work.

Our volunteers are college-educated, mostly professional women who are currently trained by the league in wide variety of skills, such as leadership, financial planning, and interviewing. They are equipped to serve effectively in many different roles. They are not afraid to get their hands dirty, but they are just as equally prepared to help run boutiques or advise on resume building.

Each year we offer Community Enrichment Grants to non-profit agencies that apply and serve the underserved in our area of focus. Last year we assisted the Waterside Workshops and the Ariel Outreach Mission. This year the grant applications are due in December 2018. For more information, click here.

When we look for a community partner, we are always hoping to do a signature project for them as well as provide a focused-concentration of volunteer power over an extended period of time. Depending upon the success of the collaboration, our community partnerships last from one to three years. Our current partner is The Bread Project of Berkeley. Along with providing speakers and mock-interviews for their bakery bootcamp, we will be laying the groundwork and developing an alumni association for them. Recent past partners were Wardrobe for Opportunity in Oakland and Concord and the Alameda Point Collaborative. Each partnership brings value to both JLOEB and the partner through meaningful projects and joint-marketing.

Each Junior League in California operates a State Public Affairs Committee aimed at getting women interested and involved in public affairs and advocating for legislation that combats the ills of poverty by eliminating barriers to and providing opportunities for equity. JLOEB is no exception. Two events coming this year are a joint collaboration with the League of Women Voters called Bubbles and Ballots, a non-partisan presentation of issues we are facing in the mid-term elections; and an anti-human trafficking panel. For more information, email spac@jloeb.org.

So it is a new year. We’ve turned over a new leaf. But we remain steadfast in our mission to serve our communities with our intelligence, our effort, and our finances. We hope you will join us in our endeavors.

Sincerely,

AnnAlia Young
President 2018-19
Junior League of Oakland Eastbay
president@jloeb.org