New Girl Scout Program Options Easier Than Ever for Leaders

The Girl Scout organization has been through many changes in the nearly 100 years it has existed. This year, Girl Scouts of the United States of America released its new Leadership Journeys program, which will supplement current programs and perhaps eventually become the primary part of the Girl Scout program.

What stays the same?

The overall mission of the Girl Scout organization remains the same: "Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place." This mission statement was written in 2005, and is very similar to the mission statement previous to that one, although quite different from the 1912 version: "To train girls to take their rightful places in life, first as good women, then as good citizens, wives and mothers." (LEADER Magazine, Winter 2005)

The Girl Scout Promise and Law remain the same; the Promise was last revised in 1984, and the Law in 1996. (ScoutingWeb.com, Girl Scout History Timeline 1860-2002)These are the fundamentals of all Girl Scouting.

Girl planning and leadership is still the focus of the Girl Scout program as well.

Girls can still earn the same Daisy petals, Try-It's, badges and interest projects that were available prior to the Journeys. The Journeys are simply being added to the existing program options at this time (The Girl Scout Leadership Experience Frequently Asked Questions, GSUSA).

What's different?

Leadership Journeys do involve earning patches, but in a very structured way. Each journey includes an adult guide and a participant guide. The adult guide gives complete lesson plans for every step of the journey. All the Girl Scout leader has to do is gather the appropriate supplies and make copies of worksheets in the books. Girls don't even have to have their own individual books, because the Girl Scouts have given explicit permission for leaders to copy the worksheets in the participant books (although they can't copy the story portions).

There are three keys to each journey. Girls will learn to Discover, Connect, and Take Action. Activities from each of these key areas are included in the lesson plans. The keys, in turn, correspond to 15 leadership outcomes that the Girl Scout organization has defined as essential to the program.

Adult leaders (even experienced leaders) receive training on how to conduct these leadership journeys with the girls. Journeys are available at each age level, and include the Daisy Flower Garden (grades K-1), Brownie Quest (grades 2-3), Juniors: Agents of Change (grades 4-5), Cadette aMAZE (grades 6-8), Senior Girltopia (grades 9-10) and for Ambassadors (grades 11-12) Your World, Your Choice: The Power of Advocacy.

SOURCES

Kathy Cloninger, "The New Girl Scout Mission Statement", LEADER Magazine, Winter 2005, http://www.girlscouts.org/for_adults/leader_magazine/2005_winter/kathy_cloninger.asp

ScoutingWeb.com, "Girl Scout History Timeline 1860-2002", http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/subpages/GSTimeline.htm

GSUSA, "The Girl Scout Leadership Experience Frequently Asked Questions", http://www.girlscouts.org/program/journeys/leadership_experience_faqs_summer_fall_2008.pdf