Welcome

Message From Our Chapter President

Welcome to The Lansing/East Lansing (MI) Links webpage. Whatever brings you to our page, we are glad you are here.

The Links Incorporated is one of the Nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations. We have a proud history of service, not only in our community, but communities throughout the world. We are a not for profit, international organization. The membership consists of over 16,000 professional women of color in 300 chapters, 42 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the United Kingdom.

It was in 1946 that The Links originated when Margaret Rosell Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott, co-founded The Links, Incorporated. They were friends from Philadelphia who envisioned a new type of inner-city club focused on enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.

Over the more than seven decades, The Links, Incorporated has attracted many distinguished women who are individual achievers and have made a difference in their communities and the world. They are business and civic leaders, role models, mentors, activists, and volunteers who work toward a common vision by engaging like-minded organizations and individuals for partnership.

Link members contribute more than 1 million documented hours of community service annually, strengthening their communities and enhancing the nation. Our core values are friendship, service, honesty, integrity, commitment, family relationships, courage, respect for self and others, legacy, confidentiality, responsibility, and accountability.

Chartered on October 28, 1972, by 16 visionaries, The Lansing/East Lansing (MI) Chapter of The Links Incorporated has worked for over fifty years to empower the people who live in our community while advancing our organization’s five facets: Health and Human Services, National Trends and Services, International Trends and Services, The Arts, and Service to Youth.

In recognition of our founding Links, we established the Link-Learn-Lead Institute. This year-long Institute provides an opportunity for Links to lift up young female high school juniors with new experiences which will involve the arts, entrepreneurship, personal finance, civic responsibility, career and life skills. The young women who successfully complete the program will be awarded a Link scholarship. We couldn’t be more excited about the work we are doing and the opportunity to use our vast knowledge, experience, and love to pour into the next generation of African American leaders. These young women will also have the opportunity to participate in our signature program, the annual “White Rose Gala” where we present two ATHENA Awards.

We have a proud history of successful programs that provide valuable service to the community, including our most recent K.A.R.E. program with groundbreaking health care information and assistance surrounding kidney disease.

We are extremely appreciative to those of you who have sponsored, donated, or assisted in the success of our programming. Please continue that support. Your support is needed today more than ever as young people of color face a multitude of challenges.

In 2022, The Lansing /East Lansing Chapter marked fifty years of celebrating our long-held tradition of friendship and service and look forward to our next fifty years! We hope you will join us.

Linked in Friendship and Service,

Mable Martin-Scott

President