Junior League of Little Rock

The Junior League of Little Rock, which traces its origins to 1914 and which affiliated with the Association of Junior Leagues in 1922, has played a role in founding many of the city’s best-loved and most popular institutions and events, among them the Arkansas Arts Center, Riverfest and the Gaines House for homeless women.

In 2001, it bought and renovated the Woman’s City Club building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The revived building, which serves as league headquarters, also houses the Junior League Nonprofit Center, a shared workspace for several other nonprofits helping Arkansans.

The league, recognizing the need for collaboration and for sustainable programs, seeks to leverage its assets to the benefit of the most people and groups possible.

But the core of what the Junior League does is train women to be civic and community leaders, an effort that has a ripple effect on other organizations and society as a whole.

“Our mission is about promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the action and leadership of trained volunteers,” said Dr. Marisha DiCarlo, president of the JLLR. Developing women as leaders is done “through our formal training, and we also do it through our community projects.”

The league estimates that it provides $1 million in service annually to Little Rock through the more than 40,000 hours its members volunteer every year.

The JLLR’s many projects include the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and, in collaboration with the campaign and Head Start, a project called Little Readers Rock, which last year served an estimated 500 children with a literacy event and new books of their own. And the JLLR is continuing the Stuff the Bus project, which provides over 3,000 students in seven schools in the Little Rock School District with all their basic school supplies for the year.