Influential women ‘link’ local community

ALBANY — The Albany Chapter of The Links Inc, has been chartered for 35 years. In that time, the organization has conducted many community service events adhering to five facets: services to youth, the arts, national trends and services, international trends and services, and health and human services.

“We (were) chartered in 1983 for the purpose of service to our communities,” state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, one of the original charter members and chairwoman of the organization’s Scholarship Committee, said. “We were probably one of the largest metropolitan areas in the state that did not have a chapter of Links. … This is an organization of service, and that service can come in the form of many different venues or many different purposes.”

Chapter President Aditi Vance said that Links also considers a person’s history of community involvement before inviting a woman to join.

“We look at your professional impact that you have, careerwise, as well as your involvement in your community and interest in service,” she said. “(We consider whether you) have a track record of being interested in the improvement of your community.”

Over the years, Links has held voter registration drives, worked with nearby food banks, hosted the breast cancer research fundraiser “Cupcakes and Cocktails for a Cure,” participated in the Relay for Life, created a curriculum for school systems based on the Atlanta Opera, taught a social etiquette class, and the list goes on.

“We actually take a look at the community needs and assess what’s important to our local area,” said Vance, who added that the organization works within a 50-mile radius of Albany and determines which programs will be the most impactful.

Fund Development Chairperson Sheri Barlow added to that statement, noting, “We try to have fundraisers that are of interest to the community, something that they also align themselves with.”

As such, the Albany chapter’s signature programs are scholarships and services to youth.

Travis Ervin, the Services to Youth chairperson, said the program began in 1998 and focuses on providing academic readiness skills, tutoring skills, self-esteem/self-confidence, as well as the awareness and prevention of bullying on social media. Links partners with a local school, choosing 10-15 fifth-grade girls to take part in a yearlong mentoring program.

“Last year, we were able to take those 15 girls every month, provide them with some type of activity within each of the facets that we currently have in the Links,” Ervin said. “That gave them the idea of how they could help their community, and they were very appreciative.”

Vance said that an element unique to the local Links chapter is that some of the founding members are still active in the chapter.

“The older ladies have definitely taken us under their wings and mentored us,” she said. “We’ve got to be able to sustain the chapter, so they’ve taught us how. They’ve done this for 35 years, so who better to learn from?”

Barlow said that another unique quality of the organization is how many influential people are part of the chapter.

“I just think we have a lot of Links who are in leadership roles, like our mayor, Dorothy Hubbard, and Sen. Sims,” she said. “We’re strong on leadership.”

According to Vance, the chapter’s location also has the members interact with the community in more distinct ways.

“I think we have a unique dynamic being in Albany, Georgia,” Vance said. “We are the big city in southwest Georgia, and that gives us a very big responsibility. …We have unique challenges here, not any worse than anybody else, but they’re just different. I think that the opportunity to really partner together as a community, I think that’s something that we really go at as a region. It’s nice to be able to be a part of that.”

When the local Links chapter was chartered in 1983, it started with a question.

“Women in this area had Link friends in other parts of the state, and they said, ‘Wow, why don’t you guys have one?’” Sims said. “And a lot of us were not familiar with the organization. The closest we had was Tallahassee in Florida, which is in another state. …We got together, those of us with like minds, like abilities and credentials — and those credentials were varying. You could’ve been in health care, education, (an) entrepreneur.”

Becoming a part of Links is by invitation only. The national organization identifies 22 women to be part of an interest group based on their abilities.

“Some of these women were already doing a lot of service-oriented projects in the community individually,” Sims stated. “So we came together as a group to make it stronger and have more impact.”

In order to become a chapter, Sims said, “You kind of have to prove yourself over a length of time. You don’t just say ‘I want to be a member.’ The national organization has to see what you’re capable of doing and had to see what we were capable of doing.”

Jada HaynesAEJENKINS(C)2017