GREATER METROPOLITAN ATLANTA CHAPTER
Power & Potential: Parents Empowering Youth through Leadership Development, Cultural Heritage and Community Service
Jack and Jill of America, Inc. (“Jack and Jill”) has established itself as the premier organization bringing African-American children together in a social, cultural, and service environment. The Jack and Jill chapters in the metropolitan area of Atlanta are demographically unique in that over 40% of those residing in the community are African-American; therefore, there continued to be a need to expand access to families desiring to provide the unique opportunity that membership in Jack and Jill offers to their children.
In the beginning...
Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated, Inc. (JJOA) is a membership organization of mothers with children 2-19, dedicated to nurturing future African-American leaders by strengthening children through leadership development, volunteer service, philanthropic giving and civic duty. The Progressive Atlanta Moms (PAMs) Provisional Group began with the vision of former Atlanta Chapter President Patrice Greer and former Vice President Hillary Dunson. In the fall of 2010, Vice President Dunson approached National Vice President Tamara Turnley-Robinson to help identify ways to accommodate the high interest level of families within the Atlanta area wanting to embrace the aims and objectives of Jack and Jill of America. National Vice President Tamara Turnley-Robinson endorsed the petition as part of her vision for regional growth.
Metropolitan Atlanta Area Interest Group Forms
In the spring of 2011, under the leadership and encouragement
of President Rebecca Young and Vice President Marian Roach, the Atlanta Chapter of Jack and Jill voted favorably to expand boundaries and fully and actively embrace the formation of an interest group. Under the direction of National Vice President Turnley-Robinson, President Young appointed member mothers Hillary Dunson, Kyra Harvey, and Felecia Farrar-Perkins as emissaries to provide resources to interested mothers Darlene McGhee Whittington and Melody Marie Smalls, and to guide them in organizing the interest group. National Vice President Tamara Turnley-Robinson, Southeastern Regional Director Joli Cooper, and President Rebecca Young provided letters of support and affirmation to the interest group encouraging them to proceed. These efforts culminated in an informational meeting on June 21, 2011 at Maggiano’s Restaurant in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta. There were over 100 mothers in attendance to discuss the next steps needed to form a new Jack and Jill chapter in the Atlanta area. The first meeting at Maggiano’s was the beginning of the journey for the Metropolitan Atlanta Area Interest Group (as they were called at that time) in becoming the 40th chapter in the Southeastern Region of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated.