The Louisiana AAUW is the leading advocate of equity for women and girls in the state promoting education, opportunity, diversity, and intellectual growth. The Northshore Branch has been an essential partner in these efforts.

Benefiting Girls and Women in our Community:

The original Covington-Mandeville branch has also acted on AAUW Educational Research initiatives. In 1993, following release of Hostile Hallways: The AAUW Survey on Sexual Harassment in America’s Schools, The Slidell and Covington-Mandeville Branches formed a coalition to approach the St. Tammany Parish School System with AAUW’s Sample Sexual Harassment Policy.  Members of both branches worked with school officials on guidelines for this policy.  The result was the development of a Sexual Harassment Policy for the parish schools, enacted in February 1994.  Sharon Vercellotti (Covington-Mandeville Branch) presented this work in 1995 at the AAUW Convention in Orlando, Florida in a workshop entitled Changing School Climate.  AAUW was again called to assist in the revision of the St. Tammany Parish School System Sexual Harassment policy in 1997.  The original efforts and the revision of the policy were presented at the 1997 AAUW Convention in Anaheim, California, in a workshop entitled Baby It’s Cold Inside.  Eileen deHaro, President of the Covington-Mandeville Branch, and Beverly Stubblefield, member of the now-disbanded Slidell Branch, served on the panel in this workshop which was chaired by Freddie Landry of the Metairie-Eastbank Branch.

Our Girl’s Summit in 1998 contributed to the national educational research project, “Voices of a Generation: Teenage Girls on Sex, School, and Self”.

Career Fairs were presented for girls in 4th-6th grade in order to educate them about various non-traditional career options. Women mentors were provided from careers such as Molecular Biologists, Lawyers, etc.

Our “Women in Transition Workshop” provided information about universities in our area and possible scholarships from the AAUW Educational Foundation.

We have offered a financial awareness booth at council-wide Girl Scout events for several years. Our materials have been utilized  by Girl Scouts for badge requirements at all levels, from Daisy to Senior Scouts, and at Cookie U., a cookie sales training.

For more about our impact in our community read our history.

Current Event Awareness:

Each year since 1973, we have sponsored two community sessions of “Great Decisions”, a Foreign Policy Association discussion group.

We have co-sponsored numerous educational and/or non-partisan political forums which strive to educate the public on issues important in our community and nationally.

And much, much more!