HISTORY

2000-Present

The Junior League of Greensboro started the millennium with the same commitment to our mission, building better communities.  These three words set the course for renewed partnerships as well as new collaborations with community partners.

In 2000, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Association of Junior Leagues International gave the Junior League of Greensboro the opportunity to participate in a pilot program designed to identify the unmet needs of children affected by domestic violence, and then to develop a program to meet the identified needs.    After three years of being known as the Domestic Violence Task Force, the proactive community collaboration was renamed, the Champion Coalition.  Its purpose, simply stated, is to be committed to reducing the effects of domestic violence in Guilford County through awareness and publicity of existing services aimed at assisting those affected by Domestic Violence. 

The need for an organization that was solely dedicated to families, particularly with young children that were living with domestic violence was shocking.  Domestic Violence is an epidemic that has a history of repeating itself.  Fifty to seventy percent of men who assault their partners were abused as children.  By intervening, promoting services and educating the community to encourage intervention, the Champion Coalition set its goal to stop the cycle of domestic violence.

The Champion Coalition held its premiere of the DVD “Domestic Violence: It Affects Us All” at the Carolina Theatre on October 2, 2006.  In addition Carol Andrews, former Fox news anchor and the DVD’s narrator movingly spoke to our members about domestic violence.

A great part of the Greensboro community is the Natural Science Center.  During this time it was in the midst of a 10-year $15 million renovation and renewal under the Science City USA master plan. The first phase of this renovation is the recreation of the Science Center’s current animal exhibit into Animal Discovery, a 22-acre outdoor living museum dedicate to the “Science of Species Survival.” Ultimately, the Science Center USA master plan includes renovating many of the museum’s exhibits and adding a new planetarium projection system.

Animal Discovery, funded in part by a city bond issue and donations, is an interactive zoo. For example, there are tunnels in one section of the park that will allow visitors to “pop out of holes” like prairie dogs. Once Animal Discovery completed and accredited by the national Association of Zoos and Aquariums (“AZA”), it is expected to be in the top 10 percent of zoological facilities in the country.

In continuation of its support of the Natural Science Center, the Junior League was involved in the in Animal Discovery through the creation of the Junior League Discovery Gardens. The Gardens will be located just as you enter the park and will surround the Kavanagh house and the Davis C. Kelly Wind and Water Garden. Junior League volunteers will assist in planting wild grasses, small shrubs, and other plants. Junior League members will also be filling the planters in various animal exhibits.

The JLG is committed to making an impact in our community on an annual basis.  In 2007-2008, some of the impacts that our volunteers made were:

• In conjunction with the American Red Cross Longfellow Whales Tales Program, each month, League members teach water safety awareness to children grades K-3 in local elementary schools.
• Foster Friends is providing a creative outlet for more than 500 children in the Guilford County foster care system to express their thoughts, feelings and stories on growing up in foster care through essay writing, poetry and art.
• Every year, more than 250 disabled and mentally challenged "students" gain confidence, increased strength and flexibility, and build new skills by participating in Horsepower therapeutic riding classes.
• Through Teachers’ Warehouse, educators from Guilford County Title 1 schools are given the opportunity to shop for much needed school supplies at no cost.
• Through our partnership with LifeSpan, twenty-three individuals with developmental disabilities modeled their new business clothes donated by League members for their new job, volunteer position or college classes at a runway fashion show. Many more will acquire skills for improved independent living with our skills boxes.
• 220 people receive groceries and conversation each month through Food Assistance.
• Hands on Help was busy this fall assisting with the Natural Science Center, Boo Bash, Salvation Army Christmas Assistance, Girl Scout Thin Mint Sprint, Kids Voting, and Winter Walk for AIDS.
• External Planning brought 9 new projects to the Project Review Task Force on February 2 and has funded over $10,000 in teacher grants both with Junior League funds and matched funds from the Community Foundation of Greensboro.