Junior League Of Stamford Norwalk Inc

Programs: Education and training - as part of the league's mission, the league provides training to its members to enable them to become effective community volunteers and civic leaders. Each year, the league commits financial resources to develop leadership skills of league members, as well as training them on how to create and implement programming that will have a lasting positive impact on the community. Training is provided on a local basis through the league and other community organizations, such as the volunteer center and the fairfield county community foundation, and by sending delegates to leadership conferences held by the association of junior leagues, international.

read 2 succeed community program - the mission of the league's read 2 succeed program is to get more books into the hands of young readers and provide literacy-based events to children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in the league's service area. Rooted in the belief that by empowering children to read we can open them to a world of possibilities. The league has focused their efforts on three proven techniques that include reading to children, making books (especially bilingual books) more accessible to children, and helping parents be effective advocates for their children's education. As part of the read 2 succeed program, the league entered into a three-year collaboration agreement in 2012-13 with the stamford public education foundation (spef) in stamford, ct to host family literacy nights at the lathon wider community center in the southend stamford to support students living in this area. The program includes at least five family literacy nights a year, where kindergarten through third-grade students attend with their parents and any younger and older siblings. The students work with jlsn volunteers to practice reading while the parents work with public school teachers to learn the importance of reading with their children and helping their children develop good reading skills. Parents are given an invaluable opportunity to meet their children's teachers, ask questions about their education and to learn about various topics including how to interpret state test results and how to navigate parent-teacher conferences. At the family literacy nights, books and goodie bags of stationary items and healthy snacks are also given out to the families. In addition to the family literacy nights, jlsn has donated books to school libraries in stamford and norwalk and has worked with organizations, like the open door shelter in norwalk, ct to create lending libraries and reading rooms for children. To supply these books, jlsn has hosted book drives to get the community involved in this program.