Best For Women
Soroptimists are women at their best, working to help other women to be their best.
Soroptimist Raleigh: We Empower Girls & Women
Soroptimist Raleigh is a local club of Soroptimist International. Soroptimist is a global volunteer organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. The name, Soroptimist, means “best for women,” and that’s what the organization strives to achieve. Soroptimists are women at their best, working to help other women to be their best.
Our service projects collaborate extensively with women’s groups, governmental agencies, educators, international and statewide coalitions, and concerned citizens. In terms of our local service projects:
Live Your Dream
The Soroptimist Live Your Dream: Education & Training Awards
for Women program is our signature service project. This award aids women who are the primary wage earners for their families and are seeking to improve their economic status by gaining additional skills, training and education.
Live Your Dream Plus
In our “Live Your Dream Plus” program we follow up with our awardees for up to three years, mentoring them to afford ongoing support both non-financial as well as financial. With our Live Your Dream Plus program, our awardees know that there is a network of women who are ready to help in any number of ways.
Dream It Be It
Dream It Be It targets girls in secondary school who face obstacles to their future success. It provides girls with access to professional role models, career education and the resources to live their dreams.
Real Stories
Here are a few stories of some recipeints of the Live Your Dream Awards. Perhaps they will encourage you to take the steps to achieve your dreams, big or small.
Shanetta – 2021 Live Your Dream Awardee
Shanetta is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition from Meredith College while working part-time and raising two children. She decided to pursue her degree after the death of her spouse. She needed to prove to herself, and to her two young children, that...
Kayla – 2021 Live Your Dream Awardee
Kayla is pursuing an Associate Degree of Nursing at Wake Technical Community College while working part-time and caring for a young child. She plans to complete her degree in December 2021. Growing up, Kayla saw the challenges of a parent battling a chronic illness...
Bertha – 2021 Live Your Dream Awardee
Bertha is pursuing an associate degree in business administration at Durham Technical Community College while working full-time and raising two children. Bertha had her first child at a young age and decided to pursue her degree while pregnant with her second. She...
News and Events
Charity Distance Festival Raises Over $800
WOW! After over a year of zoom meetings, masks, and social distancing it was incredibly special that we could host our first ever (but certainly not our last) fundraising walk/run. With options to run/walk wherever you wanted ("virtual") or participate “in person” at...
2021 Live Your Dream Award Recipients
Soroptimist International of Raleigh, a local club of the global volunteer organization Soroptimist® that economically empowers women, awarded four recipients—Bertha, Kayla, Latisha, and Shanetta—with its Live Your Dream: Education and Training Awards for Women. Live...
Keeping Membership Active & Growing In A Pandemic
For any volunteer group, growing and retaining membership membership is challenging - but especially so during a pandemic. For Soroptimist Raleigh this was no different. We asked our membership committee chairs Sarita Harkness and Pat Lynch to talk about how they've...