Focus Advisory Committee Update

The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) is 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. To further the mission of the JLC and leverage its impact in the community, hundreds of women volunteer each year with a common goal of targeting a specific need in the community. This focus area guides how the

JLC commits financial and volunteer resources to community agencies and projects that are based on the needs of the Charlotte community and in line with the JLC’s community initiatives. This allows the JLC to focus resources and volunteers in order to make a significant difference for a particular need in the Charlotte community. Over the last 96 years, the JLC has provided more than 1.6 million hours of volunteer service and more than $13.7 million to our community, supporting hundreds of local organizations. Unlike other non-profit organizations that have a static focus area, the JLC evaluates its community focus area every five years to maintain a pulse on the changing needs of the Charlotte community. This enables the JLC to have maximum impact on the needs that are most urgent and relevant to the community by committing all financial and volunteer resources to support this one focus.

Beginning in June of 2018, after more than two years of research and development, the

JLC adopted the School Readiness Initiative. Since then, the JLC has partnered with our community to ensure all children are school-ready by focusing on the health and educational needs of children from birth to fifth grade in priority areas of Mecklenburg County. School Ready will continue to be the JLC’s community focus through May 2023. This May, JLC members will vote to either continue, revise or change our community focus. This is where the work of the Focus Advisory Committee is so critical to our organization. The Focus Advisory Committee is a subcommittee of the Board of Directors charged with completing an assessment of the current community focus area and making a recommendation for either continuing, modifying or creating a new focus area for the next 5-year cycle (June 2023-May 2028). This committee is in the process of reviewing multiple needs assessments, interviewing community stakeholders, and surveying members to determine the greatest community needs, potential opportunities for the JLC, as well as what community challenges our members are most interested in working to improve. The Focus Advisory Committee will continue this evaluation throughout the League year and present a proposed community focus to the full JLC membership at the May 2022 General Membership Meeting. Following approval, community organizations that align with this focus area will be able to apply to partner with the JLC during the project evaluation period in the fall of 2022. Community organizations that have applied and align with the JLC focus are selected as community partners by the Project Evaluation Committee and then approved by the JLC membership. The JLC will begin working with these community partners in June of 2023. This is an exciting time for the JLC as we are able to discuss with our members, community advisors and community partners how we can continue to make the greatest impact in our community.