Girl Scout Leadership Experience

A: The Girl Scout Leadership Experience engages girls in discovering themselves, connecting with others, and taking action to make the world a better place.

Click here for an online tutorial about the Girl Scout Leadership Experience.

Q: What are the three keys to leadership and how do they relate to the Leadership model?

A: Discover, Connect, and Take Action. These three keys are defined as:

Discover: Girls understand themselves and their values and use their knowledge and skills to explore the world.

Connect: Girls care about, inspire, and team with others locally and globally.

Take Action: Girls act to make the world a better place.

In Girl Scouting, Discover+Connect+Take Action=Leadership. All Girl Scout experiences are intentionally designed to tie to one or more of the 15 national leadership outcomes, or benefits, categorized under the three keys to leadership. The three keys to leadership replace Girl Scouting’s “four program goals.”

Q: What are the Girl Scout processes?

A: In Girl Scouting, it’s not just “what girls do” (activities), but “how” (processes) they do them (activities). When used together, these processes—Girl Led, Cooperative Learning, and Learning by Doing—ensure the quality and promote the fun and friendship so integral to Girl Scouting.

Q: What are the 15 outcomes (benefits) of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience?

Discover Outcomes

1. Girls develop a strong sense of self.
2. Girls develop positive values.
3. Girls gain practical life skills.
4. Girls seek challenges in the world.
5. Girls develop critical thinking.

Connect Outcomes

1. Girls develop healthy relationships.
2. Girls promote cooperation and team building.
3. Girls can resolve conflicts.
4. Girls advance diversity in a multicultural world.
5. Girls feel connected to their communities, locally and globally.

Take Action Outcomes

1. Girls can identify community needs.
2. Girls are resourceful problem solvers.
3. Girls advocate for themselves and others, locally and globally.
4. Girls educate and inspire others to act.
5. Girls feel empowered to make a difference in the world.

The Leadership Journeys

Q: What's special about Journeys?

A: A key part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience is the leadership journey, a
coordinated series of activities grouped around a theme, seen through many experiences and from many perspectives. In this way, girls build leadership skills and confidence as they gain new skills and knowledge, and widen their view of the world. Each Girl Scout journey features a book for girls and a guide for the adults who partner with the girls in a group setting. Each journey is tied to some of Girl Scouts' 15 national outcomes for girls, as defined in the Girl Scout Leadership Model.

At every grade level, these books place great emphasis on inviting girls to “Take Action” on an issue they care about. The books also contain stories, inspirational material, Girl Scout history, traditions and values, facts and games, and open spaces for girls to fill in their own ideas and memories.

The three leadership journeys available are It’s Your World-Change It!, It’s Your Planet-Love It!, and It’s Your Story—Tell It!” This newest “leadership journey series uses a storytelling theme in a fun and grade level relevant way for girls to better understand themselves and their potential. On this journey, an emphasis is placed on building a strong sense of self as well as on media literacy and creative expression. All along the journey, girls have opportunities to engage in a variety of arts, including performing, visual, culinary, and new media, to tell their stories and take action to make the world a better place.

To get a picture of how journeys and other Girl Scout activities work together to make one consistent Girl Scout experience, visit the Girl Scout Web site, www.girlscouts.org/program/journeys/maps, to view the “journey maps.” These maps provide an overview of the total Girl Scout experience for girls at every level. As you mouse over the map, you will see pop-ups that give further information about how to tie traditional Girl Scout activities (such as camping, field trips, and cookie sales) into the journeys.

The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting

Q: What's the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting?

A: Girl Scouting has never been more exciting with this new program resource, The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, which will be available in the Council Shops this fall. Girls and volunteers will love the fun, eye-opening activities and the all-in-one badge book and handbook format. The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting complements the Girl Scout Journeys by helping girls build skills to be successful and gain the confidence to do amazing things!

Each age level will have its own Girl’s Guide and is presented in a beautiful standard-size binder. The Girl’s Guide includes the grade-level handbook; requirements for Legacy, Financial Literacy, and Cookie Business badges, and Make Your Own badges; information about earning Bridging and Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards (for Juniors through Ambassadors); and accessory pages such as scrapbooking pages.

Material in The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting is written to the girl with clarity and easy-to-follow steps, so adult guides are not necessary or available for helping girls with their badges. All Girl’s Guides to Girl Scouting will be for sale at 25 percent off through March 12, 2012 for $16.87 in the Council Shops (normal retail is $22.50).

Q. How do journeys and badges work together?

A: The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting works with national leadership journeys to add skill-building to the leadership skills girls learn through the three keys of Discover, Connect, and Take Action. Journeys are the only program resources that cover all 15 outcomes. Badges build specific skills and are primarily aimed at the Discover “Girls develop a strong sense of self” outcome.

Q: What badge categories are being included in The Girl’s Guide?

A: The badge categories that are included are Legacy, Financial Literacy, Cookie Business badges and the Make Your Own badges. The seven Legacy badges – for Brownies through Ambassadors–which honor the heritage of Girl Scouts while offering contemporary skill-building activities are Artist, Athlete, Citizen, Cook, First Aid, Girl Scout Way, and Naturalist. Badge activities will be progressive, so girls can build on skills they’ve learned at each level. For instance, when they earn the Cook Badge as Brownies, they’ll add to their experience when they earn the Cook Badge as Juniors all the way up to Ambassador.

For Brownies, Juniors, Seniors, and Ambassadors, 12 badges are offered. Cadettes are offered 14. Daisies are offered 10 Petals and Promise Center, two Financial Literacy, and two Cookie Business “leaves.” Girls can earn two Financial Literacy and two Cookie Business badges per level except for Cadettes who can earn three.

Each badge has five steps. Girls complete all five to earn the badge. (There are three choices for completing each step. Girls need only do one.) The five steps vary depending on the skill girls are learning.

Q: What can Daisies earn?

A: Daisies will have a special approach. They’ll continue to earn Petals with new stories and activities and can now earn Financial Literacy and Cookie Business “Leaves” to go with their Petals. Daisies do not earn Make Your Own badges. Of course, they can earn their Leadership Journey Awards.

Q: How about Ambassadors?

A: Ambassadors can earn Legacy, Financial Literacy, Cookie Business badges, and one Make Your Own badge per year. They can also earn their Leadership Journey Awards. Skill-Building Badge Activity sets are not being offered to Ambassadors who are more interested in pursuing their Girl Scout Gold Award than earning extra badges.

Seniors and Ambassadors can also earn the newly named VIT award which refers to Volunteer-in-Training, and is replacing the Leader-in-Training award. The VIT award is earned by girls who want to mentor girls in a pathway other than the camp pathway.

Q. What can be added into the Girl Guide binder?

A: Skill-Building Badge Activity sets can be added. A set includes the requirements for badges tied to each of the three journeys. The first three sets include earning requirements for five badges. All physical badges are purchased separately and individually. All Skill-Building Badge Activity Sets cost $4.

Q. What are Make Your Own Badges?

A: Girls explore personal interests by creating and completing one badge of their very own each year. Make Your Own badges don’t require council approval, although to create and complete one, girls do work with volunteers or advisors. The last step to completion requires a discussion between the girl and an adult and requires an adult’s signature.

When a girl earns her Make Your Own badge, she gains skills not only in her chosen topic but from the process of creating the badge. Therefore, girls can only earn the Make Your Own badges they create.

To create the physical Make Your Own badge (in addition to developing the idea and the requirements), girls will log onto (with adult supervision) a Make Your Own badge website, where they’ll choose a design icon from a gallery of pre-approved images. Once they are finished designing, girls submit their badges to the licensed vendor on the site who will produce and ship.

Q. Will all Make Your Own badges look the same?

A: Make Your Own badges for Brownies through Ambassadors will have the appropriate grade-level shape. The border will match the grade-level color.

Q. Are there other earned awards?

A: All levels are offered journey and other updated awards such as the Safety Award. Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassador will continue to earn Community Service Bars, which encourages girls to practice the values of the Promise and Law as they make a difference in their communities. Two Service Bars will be offered at each level: Community Service Bars whereby a girl volunteers 20 hours of service to a community organization and the Service to Girl Scouting Bar whereby a girl volunteers 20 hours to the Girl Scout organization.

Also available is the new Journey Summit pin for all age levels, which is earned when a girl completes all three journeys at her level. Earning this award demonstrates that a girl knows “to her core” what it means to be a leader.

Girl Scouts of the USA is also offering girls the opportunity to deepen their faith by earning the My Promise, My Faith Pin--the only national faith award girls can earn. Girls can continue to earn religious awards or PRAY awards which are administered through their individual faith communities. All religious awards including the My Promise, My Faith pin are designed for individual girls to work on their own, and not as a group award. Girls can earn one pin every year. By the time a girl goes from Daisy to Ambassador, she can earn 13 pins.

Q: What about local badge activities?

A: Locally created badge activities remain an important way to respond to the interests and needs of girls. By using the Leadership Experience as the “engine” for all programming, Girl Scout councils will be able to begin adjusting local offerings, purposefully planning them based on the leadership outcomes intended for girls.

Ordering and Merchandise

Q. Why are Skill-Building Badge Activity sets being sold separately?

A. Skill-Building Badge Activity sets were developed so girls could add on badges that reflect their interests. This approach was chosen to provide choice and customizability--features girls, volunteers, and parents told GSUSA--during the research phase of development of The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting--were important.

Skill-Building Badge Activity sets will include the requirements for badge earning and are being offered as “sets,” (rather than as individual badges) because of the need to be cost-effective in packaging merchandise.

Q. What if girls only want to work on one extra badge. Do they still have to buy a badge set that includes all five?

A. Girls need to purchase Skill-Building Badge Activity requirements in sets of five; they cannot buy them individually. The decision was made to offer Skill-Building Badge Activity requirements in sets because the cost of providing individual sheets with requirements was prohibitive.

Q. Do the Legacy and Financial Literacy badges come separately?

A. No. Legacy, Financial Literacy, and Cookie Business badges are included in the purchase of The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting.

Q. Will badges be embroidered?

A. Yes. Cookie Business badges will be a mix of “sublimation” and embroidery. Sublimation is a process whereby an image is treated with special ink and affixed to the fabric giving it a raised look.

Girl Scouts Girl Scouts of Southeast Louisiana

Girl Scout Leadership Experience