Junior League of Chicago’s Little Black Dress Initiative Fall 2023 supporting Junior League of Chicago
Junior League of Chicago’s Little Black Dress Initiative Fall 2023 supporting Junior League of Chicago
About the Junior League of Chicago
The Junior League of Chicago (JLC) was founded in 1912 by Lucy McCormick Blair Linn. The initial focus was to interest young women in the industrial and social issues of the city, research ways to effectively address those issues and to bring about positive change, and to set an example for others about the importance of civic welfare.
For more than a century, the JLC has diligently worked to empower at-risk families, especially women and girls, through hands-on mentoring, advocacy and education. We continue our mission of promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving the Chicagoland community through effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.
Each year, members of the JLC donate over 125,000 volunteer hours to community agencies and programs that support child welfare and education, and raise thousands of dollars to fund community projects that focus on three signature issues: meeting essential needs, literacy, and violence prevention & awareness.
Our commitment remains unwavering: to develop exceptionally qualified civic leaders who can identify a community’s most urgent and pressing needs and address them with meaningful and relevant programs and initiatives that not only improve lives, but change the way people think.
How Your Support Makes a Difference
The demand for meeting essential needs has increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic. As of September 2023, 1 in 4 families with children in Chicago reported experiencing food insecurity. The cost of living increases felt across the U.S. in the last year have caused more families than ever before experiencing financial harships that put limits on their access to basic human needs such as food, clean water, health care, clothing, and shelter due to the inability to afford them. In Illinois, women, children, and people of color have the highest poverty rates, with women's poverty rates over 12% higher than men's poverty rates.
The JLC is committed to addressing and combating the various impacts of poverty on families suffering from a lack of access to essential needs. By partnering with local organizations working to meet essential needs, we will make strides to improve the lives of those impacted while reducing the short-term and long-term effects of poverty and homelessness in Chicagoland.
Thank you for your support!
Can one black dress worn for five short days create awareness about issues that affect others for a lifetime?
Founded in 2014 by the Junior League of London, the Little Black Dress Initiative (LBDI) is a week-long awareness and fundraising campaign that harnesses the power of social media to illustrate the restrictions poverty places on choices, opportunities, and access to resources. Champions wear one black outfit for five consecutive days, in an effort to spark conversations and awareness about poverty and related issues.
To date, dozens of Junior Leagues have replicated the initiative in their own communities, collectively sparking countless conversations and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of important community programs.
This year, The Junior League of Chicago’s LBDI campaign focuses on advocating on behalf of our signature issue of meeting essential needs of Chicago’s citizens, which we believe is vitally important to the health and well-being of our community.
Funds donated to this campaign support JLC’s efforts to address the multifaceted impacts of poverty on a person's physical and mental well-being by providing access to healthy foods, safe housing, clean clothing, education, healthcare, and sanitation for Chicago’s citizens. As a League, we are committed to partnering with existing organizations working towards these goals and advocating on behalf of these issues.
We invite you to register to be a Champion or donate today!