Generational Poverty

The Junior League of Amarillo is constantly striving to better serve our community and bring greater satisfaction to our members.  This year the JLA is participating with other Leagues across the country in an initiative process called IBCI, or Issue-Based Community Impact.  The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) is helping Leagues across the country think about how we can focus our efforts to develop sustained long-term community impact, measurable outcomes, and become a more relevant organization. This process also allows the JLA to seek projects that fit our membership instead of the other way around.

We began the IBCI process in full force in 2015. Our Project Research and Development Committee (PRD) contacted local community leaders from local government officials, members of other non-profits, and academics at Amarillo College and WTAMU.  The goal of this research was to identify what our community’s most pressing needs are and which groups of people are under-served in Amarillo.  Membership was kept in the loop as to the progress of this research along the way. Later in that same League year, the entire membership voted on which area we should focus our energies and efforts. We chose to tackle generational poverty in our community. As we continue to make strides to best impact and serve our community, in 2018 membership voted on a target population. The choice was made to specifically focus on our efforts on children in generational poverty.

Since 2015 we have made efforts to refocus our grants and community projects to reflect our voted-on issue. Our league has the opportunity to really focus our efforts in one relevant impact area.

One of the biggest portions of this process is to have a measurable impact. We are currently working on bringing those numbers to you in a way that will allow not only our membership, but the rest of our community, to more easily see the positive impact of the Junior League of Amarillo on our amazing community.