What is Jackson Service League?

Who are we?

We are a group of talented women who dedicate our efforts in making the community a better place. JSL women have been helping non profits in the Jackson TN area since 1952.

What do we do?

We have given back to Jackson by being able to help non profits. We serve countless hours to volunteer work, give grants to non profits and award a scholarship each year. Our grants and scholarship funds come from money we raise through our fundraisers. We have an annual Boots Bands and Bingo and have held countless events in the past to make our donations possible.

We also make it our priority to volunteer in the community. Each year, each member is responsible for a specific amount of service hours most of which we do together.

Who do we help?

JSL helps any non for profit organization that supports women and children. Non profits are welcome to apply for grants we award each spring as well as let us know how we can help. We have planted gardens, filled up food pantry’s, painted and furnished rooms for centers who serve women and children, collected school supplies, served food and so much more.

Additionally, we also grant a scholarship to one lucky young lady who is a senior in high school.

A Little History:

Each generation has a particular vantage point to view our city’s history and the path tread down by our collective stories. Lost in our own days, we sometimes forget that we are a part of a city and one community.

Whether it’s a road away from racial hatred or a road that celebrates creatives, a community adopts a certain path tread by the people before them. The community saunters along until the moment when individuals and organizations rise up and insist on change, for better or worse. In the 1950s, a particular group in Jackson did just that.

During World War II, the economy desperately needed women to fill in the workforce gaps left by men who were fighting in the war. Women began to take a more active role in their communities and the workplace, but by the 1950s, men were still the titans of the business world. In Jackson, women were still snubbed by local clubs, networking groups, and business organizations dominated by men. Their avenues to serve the community, as a group, were limited.

In 1952, seventeen women banded together and changed the path of our community by creating the Jackson Service League: an all-female, non-profit organization dedicated to serving its community. Since its inception, the JSL has logged over 25,000 hours of community service. The money raised by their service has benefitted other non-profits that help women and children, such as the Dream Center, Area Relief Ministries, the Care Center, RIFA, and others.

Each generation has the unique opportunity to affect the path of their community. In essence, our future is determined by our actions today, but the path of Jackson was determined, largely, by the actions of people no longer here. The women of the Jackson Service League have looked down the path that Jackson is on. Together they are treading a new path that makes the future of Jackson hopefully look less bleak. They weren’t content staying on a path that celebrates inactivity or turning their eyes away from the needs of their neighbor.

These women aren’t superheroes; they are flying under the radar, quietly kicking poverty, illiteracy, and hopelessness in the butt. Most of their time is spent cheering at little league games, cooking dinner, working, and having babies, but they have also chosen to spend time, not just money, making Jackson a better place to live.

We all get twenty-four hours a day. I stood for maybe an hour at the Fairgrounds helping these women sort clothes and monitoring my sister’s ankles, but the one thought that played over in my mind was this: What’s my excuse?

While an argument could be made that you don’t need an organization or club to create change in the community or to feed just one family, the JSL has proved that it is greater than the sum of its parts. If each woman had had her own sale, I doubt that it would have been as effective as the collaboration that created a mighty wave washing over local poverty.

“While the JSL isn’t eradicating poverty, they are evoking change, which is not as easy as it looks. Our modern lives may not be as affected by prejudice or disagreement as much as inactivity and laziness. If we all sit on the couch, what will our city look like thirty, forty, fifty years from now? Are we willing to get our hands grimy instead of just writing a check? Are we motivated to offer our time, or are we too content with our routine? Are we willing to leave Jackson as it is? The women of the Jackson Service League have made their choice. What will yours be?”

- Ginger Williams Our Jackson Home 2016 https://www.ourjacksonhome.com/blog-2/jsl