State of the Girl Or How Are We Doing?

Today, there are 2.7 million Girl Scouts—1.9 million girl members and 800,000 adult members. More than 59 million women in America today enjoyed Girl Scouts during their childhood—and that number keeps on growing as Girl Scouts of the USA and councils across our nation continue to inspire, challenge, and empower girls everywhere. That’s a lot of people and an amazing legacy!

With such a long legacy and a large membership have you ever wondered what girls in our own council of Western Ohio are doing in Girl Scouts? We’re so glad you asked. Here’s just a few highlights from our program effectiveness results from the 2014-2015 membership year that show how girls are discovering, connecting, and taking action in Western Ohio!

What do girls say about DISCOVER? 

Why is DISCOVERING important? It’s one of the reasons to choose Girl Scouts. According to the 2015 GSUSA survey “Girl Scout Voices Count” having opportunities for girls to do a variety of different activities were extremely/mostly important for 95% of GSWO parents/caregivers when choosing Girl Scouts.

How do we help our girls discover more? We give them opportunities to seek challenges. Girls need to be encouraged to try things, even when they know it’s not going to be easy. This is true grit and it can be done anywhere! Daises and Brownies can find out more about unfamiliar people and places at World Thinking Day, older girls can test their mettle  on our challenge course or master a new skill by earning one of our skill-building badges.

What do girls say about CONNECT?

Why does CONNECTING matter? According to the New York Times, “Teaching Peace in Elementary School” a kindergartener’s ability to share, cooperate and help other children nearly always predicted nearly 20 years later [in a Penn State and Duke study] whether a person graduated from high school on time, earned a college degree, had full-time employment…,etc.

How do we help our girls connect more? We promote cooperation and community connections. Working together is such a part of life and an important skill for our girls to succeed. So we need to help them practice with group projects where each member has a role, games that take team work to succeed, and activities that require girls to work together to reach a common goal. Service to others is a great way to help them feel more connected, especially when the adults talk with them and help them identify those connections. Brownies can participate in more community-wide events like walk-a-thons or community-clean-ups, Cadettes and up can make connections as they earn their Service to Community Bar. The more connections they make, the more they grow!

What do girls say about Take Action?

Why is ACTING important? According to a non-Girl Scout study from 2014 by the Pew Centers for Research 92% of sampled parents and 89% of teachers said problem-solving is extremely important or very important (more important than critical thinking, communication, creativity, etc.) in assessing student performance.

How do we help our girls ACT? Teach them how to identify and impact community needs! Girls of all ages can explore what it means to see a need and take action by completing the take action Journey award for their age level. We can encourage Daisies and Brownies to speak up when they see a problem. Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors can practice researching in books or online, getting community input, making a plan and asking for help as they pursue the Highest Award for that grade level.

Want to learn more about how we’re doing? Join us for our annual State of the Girl – a review of our program effectiveness results from the 2014-2015 membership year. Learn more about how our council’s girls and volunteers are feeling and what they are doing!

Register for one of the webinar offerings below by clicking the appropriate link based on what works with your schedule. Each webinar will cover the same content. No special equipment needed, just an internet connection.

 2/23/16             7:30-8:30pm

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9008625693637375746

This webinar will open at 7 pm and begin at 7:30 pm; It will conclude at 8:30 pm.

 2/25/16             10-11am          

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6717933954654683650

This webinar will open at 9:30 am and begin at 10 am; It will conclude at 11 am.

2/25/16                12-1pm

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7680100087447123202

This webinar will open at 11:30 am and begin at Noon; It will conclude at 1pm.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. We’re excited to share with our members what the girls and adults in our council have shared about how they feel and how we’re all doing as we strive to fulfill our mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character here in Western Ohio. Together, we’re making the world a better place, one girl at a time. If you have any questions, please contact the Customer Care Hotline at 1-888-350-5090 or email us at customerservice@gswo.org.