Great Silver Award Training Class Today!

What a GREAT group of Cadette Advisors in the room this morning for the Silver Award Training.  Karin Carlson and Lesley Finch were aided by Barb Christenson and me as we went through the essentials of the highest award a girl can earn as a Cadette:  the Silver Award.

We hit hard on the concept of "raising the bar", and how a Silver Award Project should not look like a regular "collection service project".  All the leaders in the room were able to shout out service projects that they'd done with their girls, and everyone was really clear on what that was.  The newer part was to talk about how a Silver Award Project is a couple steps up the ladder.

There was great discussion about how a Silver Award Project needs to benefit the community, not Girl Scouts. So while it's nice to want to put on a Brownie Playday, that's not Silver quality, any longer!  And to make it more personal, after the break, Barb asked for topics or issues that the advisors thought the girls might like to pursue.  We posted these around the room, and each advisor went to one and worked with their group to first, write down resources that they might consider pursuing for information and/or partnership on their project.

We came back together and reported back. Then broke into groups to have the group pick JUST ONE resource and choose JUST ONE possible project that could be addressed, and how that might look. 
There was engaged and energetic discussion about the root issue could be addressed.  Several groups reported back, one with a really good task list, another with a really good division of labor among the team members.  And finally, the last one to share had a topic that really didn't have an issue to address; it was just a fun thing to do!  But it didn't benefit anyone, or fill a need in the community. What a great exercise for the girls to go through as well!  It could be that their first idea won't work, so they'll need to re-group and come up with another idea.

We talked about how to use the NEW Cadette Girl Guide as the reference for the Silver Award.  It's much better than the downloads off GSUSA, and it's IN the handbook that the girl will have for 3 years!  Both the girl and the advisor can refer back to it on a regular basis to keep on track.

Lesley ended the training with a reminder to reflect and celebrate!  When the girl(s) finish their project, let them enjoy the success, talk about what they could do better, and relish the fact that they took on a project that was tough, and they accomplished it!  They discovered a need, connected with others to make a change, and took action to make the change a reality.

That's mighty heady stuff, Maynard!