Junior League in Giving Spirit on Its Birthday

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the Junior League of Newport Harbor will give $50,000 to New Directions, a Costa Mesa halfway house for women alcoholics, at a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Registry Hotel, 18800 MacArthur Blvd. in Irvine. Nine other programs, all former Junior League projects now run by community agencies, will each receive $2,000.

In addition, members will announce three new projects and the organization’s new name: the Junior League of Orange County, California, Inc.

“It’s a more accurate description of who we are and what we’ve done,” Julie Howting, league marketing vice president, said about the new name. The Junior League was founded 30 years ago as the Newport Harbor Service League. “In the last 30 years, Orange County has changed,” she said. “We were seeing most of our newer members living in different parts of the county other than Newport Harbor. Our volunteer projects serve all of Orange County.”

The league, with nearly 40% of its members now working women, has organized projects to promote juvenile justice and child welfare, provide therapy for those with developmental handicaps and combat substance abuse.

In 1977 the league established New Directions, a residential treatment program for chemically dependent women. The 28-day program consisted of alcohol and drug education and counseling, career and assertion training, nutrition, exercise, occupational, individual and group therapy and a strong involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous. Operating from four rented homes, the program claimed a success rate of nearly 70% in 1980.

In 1982, the program was turned over to a 17-member board of directors. After a campaign that raised $1.5 million, New Directions is expected to open a permanent facility this year in Costa Mesa.

Other past league projects to be honored Thursday are:

- Assessment and Treatment Services Center, a Santa Ana juvenile diversion program, which diagnoses, treats and refers juveniles and their families working with local law enforcement agencies.

- Child or Parental Emergency Services Inc., a 24-hour shelter and counseling center for children under 6 years old and their parents in Santa Ana.

- Delhi Center, an activity and volunteer placement center in the Delhi barrio of Santa Ana.

- American Red Cross disaster-preparedness program, which trains league members to inform the public about preparing for and surviving earthquakes and other disasters.

- Environmental Nature Center, a botanical and ecological laboratory open to the public at 1601 16th St. in Newport Beach.

- Natural History Foundation of Orange County, a program dedicated to preserving natural history through a museum at 2627 Vista del Oro in Newport Beach, traveling exhibits, lecture series, children’s programs and a fossil work lab.

- Orange County Marine Institute gift gallery, development of a gallery, including staff, at the institute in Dana Point Harbor.

- Orange County Philharmonic Society, musical enrichment programs for children.

- Volunteer Center of South Orange County, which coordinates and encourages volunteer work with other agencies.

The league will continue projects to publish the quarterly Child Advocate Newsletter for legislators, agencies, schools and others interested in child welfare; the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program to train volunteers to ease the transition of children into foster homes, and the Irvine Chemical People project to prevent substance abuse and provide education and intervention programs in the Irvine Unified School District.

Three new projects consist of the Adolescent Pregnancy Childwatch Project, a program to gather information and implement programs to prevent unintended teen-age pregnancy and to help teen parents; the Pediatric Enrichment Project, which will bring art programs to children and adolescents who are ill at the UCI Medical Center in Orange, and a children’s workshop program featuring portrayals of prominent Orange County historical figures through the Discovery Museum of Orange County.