volunteer

Last week, YourOnRamp was at the 43rd Annual Women’s Symposium at SMU in Dallas which was focused on Educating Women for Social and Political Leadership. One apparent theme was that leadership is a process and each step needs to be respected. Don’t we all aspire to lead? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could skip up the steps to a leadership position? The symposium was comprised of multigenerational participants and the older women were advising the younger generation that a leadership role is often earned.

Compass Community Services provides a comprehensive range of services to support families confronting homelessness and poverty to achieve stability and self-sufficiency. For families that are struggling, the winter holidays can be a difficult time. Every year we try to make them a bit brighter for the children and parents we serve through our Adopt-A-Family Project.

Women who aren’t familiar with the Junior League often ask me to describe it when they find out I am a member. If they have any knowledge of our organization, they have the “pumps and pearls” picture of well-to-do homemakers sipping tea together and writing checks to worthy causes. In reality, the Junior League of San Jose (JLSJ) is an organization of dynamic, motivated women from all sorts of backgrounds, many of whom are juggling work, marriage, children and multiple volunteer activities.

Knowing how you all value the idea of women helping women, I wanted to share with you an impressive non-profit that I've gotten involved with recently: Creating Economic Opportunities for Women (C.E.O. Women).

The mission of C.E.O. Women is to create economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refugee women through teaching English, communications, and entrepreneurship skills, so they can establish successful livelihoods. C.E.O. Women then provides women with intensive mentoring, coaching, and access to capital needed to start a small business.