American Expatriate Clubs News

AWBS - All Women Of Berkshire & Surrey, Celebrating Inclusiveness And Friendship! AWBS is a sisterhood of international and local women in the Berkshire and Surrey area, who come together to enhance their UK experience through fun and fulfilling volunteer-run activities.

We are proud to announce AWBS TV, our virtual offerings just for our members, join us for Summer Camp, our virtual offerings production of webinars, events and social gatherings all Summer long! Along with our regular prestigious monthly speakers, we will also feature informative, inspirational and entertaining live virtual sessions where all members are welcome to join in. We even have recorded sessions in case you’ve missed a featured event.

To find out more about becoming a member of AWBS, visit our website or contact membership@awbs.org.uk who will be more than happy to help and answer questions you may have.

Our diversity makes us unique, but also brings us together! www.AWBS.org.uk

35 Years of Service to the London Community. We are the Junior League of London! Since 1901, the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) has been dealing with global challenges via strong community advocacy and adapting our work to serve those in need. Through both World Wars, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, the Great Depression, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and our current COVID-19 pandemic, Junior Leagues have stayed strong in our commitment to our mission and assisting our community partners.

Adapting To Change

This spring we demonstrated our ability to transition to virtual work to support London community partners. We digitised our initiatives, leadership training, meetings, events and fundraising. The results were outstanding! • Our LBDI COVID-19 Poverty Awareness campaign (#theLBDI) raised over £15,000, with 100% of the funds dedicated to our community partners and programmes fighting poverty and the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable Londoners • We hosted our annual Pub Quiz virtually with 100 participants and donations supporting LBDI • We created 7 Neighbourhood Community

Action Teams for member support and local volunteering opportunities within

London neighbourhoods • 75 members participated in our virtual

Spring Leadership Conference: Catalysts For

Change, with inspiring speakers and timely insights during this unprecedented time.

Planning For The Holidays

We are also excited to announce a brilliant way for our friends and supporters to make donations to support our longest-running community event: Holiday Hampers. Each holiday season, we put together Hampers with essential items and gifts for those most in need. Last year we supplied over 600 hampers supporting over 1000 vulnerable Londoners. We know the need may be exceptionally higher this year so the ask is simple: make donations via our Aviva Crowdfunder site. Aviva employee donations open on 10th June; each UK employee has a £25 voucher to donate to a project of their choice. The more supporters and donations we have, the more visibility and hopefully, donations from Aviva employees. If this is not your cup of tea, then you can also donate in other ways to support Hampers, including hosting a donation drive (jll.org.uk/ holiday-hampers/).

Developing New Community Leaders

Leadership, voluntarism, friendship, and civic engagement are recurrent themes with our members. This summer we welcome a new group of Leaders, including Active Members leading committees and long-standing Members (Sustainers) helping to mentor and guide our strategic initiatives. We welcome new members each September and January. You are invited to attend an interest session to meet members and learn how you can be part of the legacy that is Junior League.

Embracing Our History

For 35 years, the Junior League of London has been affecting change in our community. Our 2019-2020 President, Melissa Allen created ‘35 Cheers’ this year to tell our story. Recap the cheers at jll.org.uk/about/35cheers/.

Junior League of London

We are a group of international women who call this area home, either temporarily or permanently. Our common goal is to share friendship, fun and philanthropy

Diversity, Equity And Inclusion

The Junior League of London’s commitment to equity, inclusion and giving support to all cultures and ethnicities is more important than ever – and as an organisation we strive to be an authentic ally in this fight for justice. Read our full statement at jll.org.uk/about/ statement-on-diversity-equity-and- inclusion/.

Thank you to our supporters, donors, community partners, friends and family, and the expat community for continuing to follow and support our work. A special thank you to American in Britain Magazine for sharing our achievements!

Thank you to Melissa Allen, Kelaine Blades, Starr Cortner and Isobel Jewell, for their contributions to this article.

The Chiltern American Women’s Club (CAWC) Now in our 33rd year, the Chiltern American Women’s Club (CAWC) continues to thrive in our Chilterns’ communities, offering social, cultural and philanthropic opportunities to our membership.

We are a group of international women who call this area home, either temporarily or permanently. Our common goal is to share friendship, fun and philanthropy. While we certainly offer support, helping newly arrived expats and repatriates alike assimilate into life in the UK, we are also a women’s membership of British and international locals who seek to get the most out of living in this amazing area.

In addition to General Meetings (held in Buckinghamshire) and events like our annual Christmas party, May Tea Party and

end-of-year celebration, CAWC members can enjoy special interest activities together. Activity groups are established and organised by members who are interested in pursuing their personal interests and hobbies with other CAWC members. Special Interest Activity Groups include hiking/ walking, movies, book club, lunch bunch, sports including tennis and golf, bible study, cooking, crafts and much more.

In response to the current situation with Coronavirus, meetings and activities have been transitioned to a virtual platform wherever possible, and we continue to build a fun and engaging virtual calendar to ensure our membership stay connected and can benefit from inspiring and timely content during these unprecedented times. Programmes will be running throughout the summer and new members are welcome to join us at any time.

Our philanthropic work is an important part of club life. Our annual charity Christmas Bazaars have raised over a quarter of million pounds for local charities. For the next two club years, CAWC International is proud to be supporting the Motor Neurone Association, www. mndassociation.org, registered in England (registered Charity no. 294354).

Our philanthropic work is an important part of club life

This charity will specifically benefit from 100% of the proceeds from the 33rd Annual Charity Christmas Bazaar, which will be virtual this year. Last year our Christmas Bazaar raised £22,000 in support of the Community First Responders – South Bucks (registered Charity no. 1049778) through sales generated by our famous gift hampers, Texas Chili Café, American Bake Sale, 60+ Specialty Vendors, raffles and various other festive activities!

In addition, special outings are arranged several times a year in the local and surrounding areas and are always wellattended. Recent past outings have included organised trips to Ascot, Stoke-on-Trent, Bletchley Park, and Highgate Cemetery to name a few.

By joining CAWC you will become part of an amazing group of women from all corners of the world (including those born and raised locally), from all walks of life, with all sorts of interests!

Everyone is welcome at CAWC International. To join in the fun and find out more, visit us at https://cawc.co.uk/ or on Facebook at CAWC International. You can also see what our club members are up to on Instagram at @cawc_international.

The American Society in London The American Society in London was founded in 1895 by the then US Ambassador Thomas F. Bayard. Indeed, the serving US Ambassador, Robert Wood Johnson IV, remains our Honorary President and we are fortunate to have the generous support of the US Embassy. The intention of our founders was to improve and cement relations between the citizens of our two countries, fostering mutual respect, understanding and affection. Membership is open to both US and UK citizens and draws heavily on the US expatriate community here in London.

It was with great regret and disappointment that our 125th anniversary celebration, to have been hosted by our Honorary President at Winfield House, was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. We did, however, proceed with the launch of our upgraded website which was timed to coincide with the festivities. Please visit us online and check out the beautiful photos of past events at www.americansocietyuk.com.

Never content to sit still for very long, during the lockdown we have been

The virtual world has been bustling with interesting programmes with an American angle and we have been working hard to keep our members plugged in to the best of these virtual events and to support fellow American organisations

privileged to attend various virtual events including ones hosted by the Benjamin Franklin House, the Booth School of Business at The University of Chicago, the Eccles Centre at the British Library, the Hamilton Society, the Kensington Gardeners Club, and the US Alumni Club to name but a few. The virtual world has been bustling with interesting programmes with an American angle and we have been working hard to keep our members plugged in to the best of these virtual events and to support fellow American organisations.

We look forward to resuming a full schedule of in-person events as soon as restrictions on large social gatherings are lifted.

To learn more about our events or to join the American Society please: email: info@americansocietyuk.com Facebook: @americansocietyinlondon Instagram: @americansocietyuk Twitter: @ASL1895.

American Women Lawyers In London – AWLL AWLL is an organisation of Londonbased women with ties to the American legal community. Our aim is to provide professional development support to members through educational events, networking and mentoring opportunities. AWLL has also partnered with several top companies to offer exclusive discounts and benefits to members.

American Women Lawyers in London (AWLL) has been doing our best to stay in touch with members during the pandemic. In May, we teamed up with SEAL and held a pub-less quiz via Zoom. We had some great prizes and all of the donations made during the quiz went to FEEDNHS, a JustGiving page focus on getting hot meals to the NHS staff. We donated a total of £300 to this great cause.

In June, we held another Zoom event, a Productivity Workshop headed by lawyer and author Ritu Goswamy, Esq. Ritu walked us through her concept, The New Billable Hour, and gave us some great tips on staying focused and taking care of ourselves during these unprecedented times.

Our Vice President, Molly O’Brien, has also been offering daily yoga sessions via Zoom. For more information on Molly’s classes, visit www.mollymac.yoga/stream.

We have a new website and Facebook page! Visit awll.org.uk to learn about membership benefits, upcoming events and to join our group.

For more information about AWLL, please visit our website at www.awll.org. uk or contact AWLL President Eryn Hanlon at eryn@awll.org.uk. You can also connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. We look forward to seeing you!