The Girl Scout Leadership Development Experience is the new design for what girls do in Girl Scouting and how adult support can strengthen their experience. It is the road map for determining what a girl will learn and how she will be impacted. The model defines and displays all the elements that must be in place to positively impact girls’ lives.
The New Girl Scout Leadership Experience identifies three “keys” to leadership:
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.
All experiences in Girl Scouting incorporate the Discover, Connect, and Take Action keys to leadership. Girl Scout experiences are also, as much as possible, girl led and encourage learning by doing (experiential learning), and cooperative learning. These three processes promote the fun and friendship that have always been so integral to Girl Scouting.
As girls take part in Girl Scouts, facilitators can review the outcomes, and the signs of those outcomes, to gauge the benefits of the experience.
What’s a Journey? Journey’s have a beginning and an ending. A Journey is the distance between them, and along the way we become a little wise at the end than we were at the beginning. A national Girl Scout Journey offers girls:
- An invitation to explore the three keys to leadership
- A chance to reflect on what they learn
- Fun and challenge
Girls experience a Journey by using a Journey Book, which is a map, “tour guide,” journal and handbook – all in one! In their Journey books, girls find:
- Stories and inspirations
- Riveting quizzes, amazing discoveries
- Questions to think about leading their own lives
- Girl Scout history, traditions and values
- Facts and games and open spaces to fill in their own ideas and memories
- Their own unique adventures
A National Girl Scout Journey offers Volunteers:
- Purpose – Facilitator guides explain how the experience ties to leadership outcomes
- Coaching – Guide provides specific examples to make the experience Girl-led, Cooperative and Learning by Doing.
- Tips & Encouragement for Every Step of the Way – Guides offer busy Volunteers greater ease as they engage in purposeful and fun experiences with girls.
Pathways are ways that girls can participate in Girl Scouting, and they are:
- Mission-driven
- Aligned to the New Girl Scout Leadership Experience
- Focused on outcomes
- Relevant and accessible to all girl populations
Girls can participate in all aspects of Girl Scouting that interest them, whether it be just attending Girl Scout Summer Camp, participating in a particular program as an individual, participating in a troop and many more exciting pathways!
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