Preparing to serve the Girl Scout Way!

Now that you’ve identified your community problem and its root cause through Community Mapping and investigation it’s time to brainstorm ways to help with that problem, find community members to collaborate, and put together a plan of action. This is step 2 of service learning and its the step where the girls’ innovation, creativity, and community contacts come into play.

Discuss with the girls possible ideas for making an impact on your chosen community need. Remind them that making an impact doesn’t necessarily mean they have to completely fix the problem, but that through their efforts the need has been lessened and their project will have a sustainable impact. Not sure what that means? Check out our post Service or Take Action for a more detailed explanation.

Your project could make a global impact:

Or it could be a simple public education piece to increase community awareness:

No problem is too big if the girls are passionate about it and committed to finding people to help them make a difference. Adults should help the girls choose the idea that is most feasible given their budget (for money-earning tips and guidelines check out Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts’ Money-Earning 101), time frame, and the girls’ abilities but be sure not to limit them. It’s amazing what girls can do when they’re determined! This is where all of the interviews, research on how other communities have tackled this problem, and their list of community resources from stage 1 will come in very handy. This step may also include developing a common vision, timelines for success, a project budget , or whatever method makes the most sense to your troop for keeping them on track to complete the project in the time available. Once the planning is done, you’ve hit step 3:Take Action! Stay tuned for our September of service blog arc wrap up next week for tips on steps 4 and 5: reflection and demonstration.