Community

We’re Focused on What Matters Most Right Now in Westchester

At the Junior League Westchester on the Sound we live in the moment. To us, that means adjusting our focus according to our community’s most pressing needs. Our work is always evolving, and that keeps us on our toes, striving for progress, and preparing to take on whatever comes next.

In the past six months, we’ve seen our entire community, and the services offered by our partners, significantly altered by the far-reaching impacts of the pandemic. Well known, and well loved, events and programming have been replaced with a strong focus on serving essential needs exclusively. We’ve also seen our members availability and comfort level with direct service understandably change as well. As our community adapts to today’s new norm, our community teams will shift to meet those new needs, with remote and face-to-face (mask-to-mask) options, as well as work with our community partners over time to address needs as they change over time.

We’re proud our League’s swift transition to meeting our communities needs in a time when they needed it most. Key to this year’s League efforts will be to “meet our partners where they are” with our membership where they are at, too. We’ll focus on supporting our partners current service offerings, while giving our members flexibility and options in their engagement opportunities.

Amplifying Our Impact Across Our Community

Our League supports our community through a variety of mechanisms that amplify the impact of our time, resources, and funding throughout our service area.

First is through the Golden Shoestring Thrift Shop – a Sound Shore staple for decades – where we resell donated clothing and household items at affordable prices while still generating profits that are invested in our community. This year, we’re adding more resources to the store and a committee to ensure we meet the demands of retail in this new environment while also centralizing and celebrating the store’s role in our community and the primary fundraiser of our League.

Second, we support a variety of other non-profit community partners across our service area that allow us to amplify our impact through their efforts. Our members provide direct support of our community partners through event coordination, donation drives, funding, and countless other little things our members do to support our mission and those of our partners – and these are all in addition to our support of our partners’ volunteer needs! We fulfill essential needs like clothing, food, and hygiene but also execute short and long term projects such as our Done-in-a-Day efforts, our annual baby shower for in need moms, and our recurring holiday initiatives.

Next, while our signature initiative, Paint It Forward, was unable to close its inaugural year, we know that the program’s objective to improve the self-esteem and the outlook of young women has lasting, lifelong impact. With great feedback from our host, participants, and our team, we’re looking forward to seeing this program through when it is safe to do so

Finally, we amplify our impact within our community by being aware of what our community needs, by working together to address those needs, through learning and applying new skills in a nurturing environment, by openly discussing and addressing tough topics, and by actively recruiting new members from our diverse service area to further amplify and expand our League’s impact.

We’re Creating Fulfilling Leadership Opportunities Throughout Westchester’s Sound Shore Communities.

The Junior League of Westchester on the Sound offers so much more than local volunteering opportunities! Our League of leaders creates real change by advancing social activism-focused projects that directly benefit the communities of Westchester. By giving women the tools to lead, educating them about their communities’ needs, and helping them put their unique brand of creativity and skill to work, JLWOS is making a big impact.