Mid-Year Review with CandO

BY KIMBERLY PERROS, CONTENT WRITER

The 2023-2024 mid-year check in with the Community and Outreach Committee (CandO) included interviews with Chair, Liz Mason and Vice Chair, Riece Drew. Liz shared how CandO has made big changes this year with refocusing our community partners. She stated the focus was reduced to six organizations in order to deepen our relationship with them. Liz shared how the six community partners were selected, based on their mission aligning with our League’s mission. Overall, the biggest benefits from right-sizing the amount of community partners are increased volunteerism within the League and repeat volunteers that continue to serve on a regular basis with these partnerships, developing deeper relationships and more consistency in supporting the organizations and those they serve. The six organizations selected are Saturday Hoops, Mentoring Plus, Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank, Bethany House Services, Our Daily Bread and Survivor Cards

Saturday Hoops builds relationships with youth while playing basketball, making crafts, and other engaging activities in order to foster positive self-esteem in children in need. Junior League members have volunteered over 120 hours with this organization since September. There are a handful of members who attend Saturday Hoops on a regular basis, outside of the opportunities that CandO provides. This organization is very meaningful to a lot of the volunteers who attend and we consistently have people wanting to sign up for this volunteer opportunity.

Mentoring Plus, a non-profit based in Northern Kentucky, provides mentorship to high-risk teens. Mentoring Plus provides support and empowerment to help youth avoid living on the streets or worse. The Junior League values Mentoring Plus because it empowers disadvantaged youth and their families to achieve their potential. Eighty-eight percent of participants from Mentoring Plus show increased resilience and resistance to drug abuse. The JLC helps partner with this organization through activities with the teens, such as, bingo, arts and crafts, soap making, and other various activities.

Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank , a past community partner of the JLC, partners with local community social service partners in order to provide diapers to infants, young children, and the disabled. The League has provided diaper wrapping events to help meet the demand of the orders that come from social service providers. CandO has been able to partner with Sweet Cheeks numerous times throughout the months of September through December, allowing us to wrap over 10,000 diapers and over 400 period kits.

Bethany House Services is CandO’s newest partner. They provide comprehensive family-centered homelessness services, all of which are provided by staff trained in trauma informed care and focused on empowering families to reach self-sufficiency. Their holistic services include prevention of homelessness, emergency shelter, housing programs, comprehensive case management, post shelter support, and permanent affordable rental housing. Bethany House Services is a long-term shelter for survivors and their children who are escaping domestic violence. Through our partnership, we are hoping the women of Junior League can communicate, learn, and grow with the members of Bethany House Services to continue to create change in the lives of the women and children in our community. Some of the volunteer opportunities we have to partner with them are hosting meals, donation drives, respite care, volunteering in the Kidz Zone, fall and spring cleaning, starting a social club, and even designing our own experiences.

Our Daily Bread and Survivor Cards opportunities allow members to contribute to the organizations through volunteer events at the Columbia Center. Our Daily Bread serves hundreds of meals a day. Through Our Daily Bread, our members are able to make sandwiches for people in need in Over-the-Rhine and surrounding areas. Our volunteers have helped make over 500 sandwiches for members of the community throughout the year.

Survivor Cards are letters to survivors of trauma to reduce feelings of isolation and increase feelings of connectedness. Survivor Cards come with mental health resources and some “freebies”. Our Survivor Cards partnership allows our members to create meaningful cards for survivors of trauma, in order to “bring back a little of the magic in getting surprise mail that seeks to support and encourage.” Our members have written over 130 cards the last couple months for these survivors.

The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) introduced a new initiative called, “Find a Good Day” on September 14, 2023 where all Leagues came together for a day of “doing good” in their communities. CandO helped to provide opportunities for members to engage in the “good” through sandwich making for Our Daily Bread and hand writing cards for Survivor Cards. Members completed over 62 hours of volunteer time for these two organizations on this day.

During the November General Membership Meeting (GMM), members heard from our CandO partner organizations about the impact they make in the community, as well as how the support from the JLC impacts them. After the presentations, members made sandwiches for Our Daily Bread and wrote Survivor Cards for survivors of trauma. Junior League members were also able to write mailbox quotes and encouragement notes for Family Nurturing Center.

Liz shared how CandO has made a huge impact so far this year: “CandO is just shy of completing almost 500 hours of volunteer time in the last four months. That is such an enormous accomplishment! We have been fortunate and grateful to work with such amazing partners this year, allowing us the opportunities to give back to the community. CandO could not do any of this without the help and support of each of our members and we are so thankful. We are excited to continue providing volunteer opportunities in 2024 and hope to fulfill even more hours of service.”

Riece shared, “Our League’s reputation and our retention have improved our overall volunteerism with our community partners.” Riece talked about once becoming an Active member, she realized the impact the CandO Committee has in our community and shared how the time to nurture the relationships with community partners has made everyone happy.

The first half of the 2023-2024 League year was bright and full of promise for the months ahead. Many thanks to the CandO Committee for their hard work and dedication to the mission and vision of the Junior League of Cincinnati. Thank you to everyone who continues to volunteer with CandO, making a positive impact in the partnerships we help support.