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!

Get Started

 “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

Samuel Jackson, actor and activist

“That’s too hard!” 

“I can’t do it!”icon

“So-and-so said that’ll never work!”

“I don’t know anyone there!”

“It’s raining!”

Many middle school girls are a combination of knowing things with dead certainty, and finding excuses to not apply themselves and start a project.  Many times, road blocks will be thrown up to put off starting something.  And that often works!  The girl might never start. Someone might do it for her….I hope it’s not you!

I think Mr. Jackson has it right, even if the girl can’t figure it all out ahead of time, she still needs to work with what she knows to start.  This is a great age to try new things and attempt leadership/projects/badges that might seem challenging.  Girl Scouts provides a place for these girls to experience safe failures.

I first heard that term a while ago, and not in conjunction with Girl Scouts.  But I think it fits really well into how we provide a safe space for girls.  We give them the opportunity to lead, work well with others and learn cooperatively.  If the girl(s) fail, they have friends/troop members/GS community to console them, prop them up and encourage them to start again.  It’s about learning. And it’s about growing.  Safely.

It’s about starting, failing and starting over.  And it’s about our supporting their efforts, encouraging their beginnings and celebrating their successes.  It’s also about our guiding them through a process, acting as resources, and offering them the chance to succeed. 

These girls can do it!

The Silver Award

The Silver Award is a BIG DEAL!  And it’s great preparation for The Gold Award Project, if it’s done well!  Truly, this is a perfect time for the adult to guide the girls to take action!  The new Leadership Model emphasizes raising the bar for all Silver Award Projects.

This is a BIG SHIFT.  The Silver Award Project is not just a community service project, making the world a better place for some people in the short-term.  It’s about making the world a better place for measurably more people and for a sustained period of time.

Taking Action involves identifying an issue, understanding the root cause and creating a project that is sustainable with an impact that is measurable. And there must be a global element:  talk about how the project could keep growing bigger in the future.

What is a Silver Award quality project?

Creating a Daisy Day Camp is not one.   The girl needs to look outside her troop/council.

Collecting blankets for the homeless. That’s a service project. What could make it a Silver quality Project?  Have the girl identify the root cause of the issue. (Lack of blankets is a result, not an issue.)  Map her community to see what organizations serve the homeless population and ask what the need is.  Perhaps there’s an education piece that can go along with collecting blankets?  Participation in a social services fair? Create a binder with instructions so that the organization can duplicate efforts in the future. Creating flyers of information. 

Collecting/making hats for neo-natal babies at CHOC.  A nice service project, but what’s the root issue? Poor pre-natal care?  Homeless/underserved women without information about how to carry full-term babies?  Have the conversation with the girl to create a project that’s sustainable. Perhaps training other girls how to sew the hats would be a piece.  The girl needs to talk with CHOC to identify the need and fill it, using her leadership!

It's All About the Quality

“The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.“

              - Martin Luther King,Jr.

I am a self-acknowledged fan of Dr. King, and I really like this quote as it may relate to the Gold and Silver Award Take Action Projects.  At Training, you've heard Karin, Lesley and me talk about how GSUSA is "raising the bar" on the standards for these two Awards.  Each award is supposed to be the hardest thing the girl will do at her level.

We advisors/project advisors/trainers need to help the girls look at the issue they want to address, and to critically think about what the need is in our community.  We need to help them identify a true need and create a plan to address that need.  This needs to be more than a collection project or something simple.  It needs to be bigger and more encompassing.

The quality of the work, the time the girl puts in and the leadership skills she uses and develops during the process are really critical here. This is a girl led process where the burden is directly on her shoulders!  We need to encourage her to find the Take Action Project that is meaningful, has quality and is within her scope to achieve.  It should  be difficult, and it should be a challenge!

For the Silver Award, this could be a single girl, or a small group of two or three girls who have come together around the same issue.  For the Gold, it's one girl alone.  You, her advisor, are there to support, cheerlead, provide resources and help her raise the bar and create a quality Take Action Project.  And NOT let her take the easy way out!

And when that bar is raised, good things happen: there is some longevity, but not necessarily something with a timeline attached to it!  Both the Gold and Silver Awards ask that the projects be sustainable.  There's no time attached to that, but it should certainly be beyond the immediate future.  At the Silver level, the girls also need to talk about and understand that global implications of their issue and their project.  At the Gold level, there might even be a way to provide for the project to global.  Or continue the talk about global implications, and talk about "what if" and other scenarios.

Dr. King believed that everyone has a voice, and that everyone can make a difference in the world. So do I. And so do your girls, I bet.

Who says Moms don't know best?

"My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."
--Wilma Rudolph
American track and field athlete

You parents and leaders have enormous power over these Cadette girls. And I mean that in the best possible way.

You are their role models, among other things(!), and you are who these girls look to for advice, information and approval, whether they want to admit it or not.  You are the one that wants to keep them safe, and still encourage them to Discover the world around them.

If Wilma Rudolph's mom hadn't been so encouraging, so positive and so sure that her daughter could succeed, would Wilma have just accepted the doctor's decree, and sat in a wheelchair for the rest of her life?  It sounds like her Mom made certain that Wilma knew that SHE COULD DO IT!  The Mom couldn't do it for her, Wilma had to do it for herself.

Isn't that the role that we leaders/advisors/guides play in our girls' lives?  We are here to let them learn how to do it for themselves, how to work together and how to take a leadership role to make the world a better place. The more we let them, support them, the more they can do!

Self Esteem and Bullying

I was reading “Ask Amy” in the LA Times because the title was “Adults need to help bullied girl”.  She gave a great answer about how the 11 year old girl’s parents should jump right on the issue, and talk with her school.  And the school should get the bully’s parents involved as well.  She went on to say that the parents should “get her involved in activities to build and bolster her self-esteem…Girl Scouts, music and theatre will help her to feel more confident.”

She also said that “…friendship is an ideal antidote to bullying.  Help to foster friendships at and outside of school.”

She was right,  Girl Scouts would be perfect for this girl!  We say that one of the key things about having troop meetings and troop events is that we create a safe environment for our girls.  And this girl definitely needs to feel safe.  And she needs to build up her self-esteem.  Have confidence in herself and who she is.  A couple years of Girl Scouting, making new friends and establishing new relationships, earning some badges, taking a Journey like Amaze that talks about this subject, etc. and she will have a great chance to move forward with who she is going to become.

And maybe she’ll earn the Silver Award.  What an accomplishment!  To go from being a bullied 11 year old to a girl who will learn how to discover, connect and take action to make the world a better place.  Maybe her root issue to address will be bullying and how much it hurts.  Maybe she will search her community for what support is available for kids who are bullied.  And maybe she will find a way to share her story with others, teaching them the signs of bullying, and showing other girls where they can go for help.  And offering her Girl Scout experience as a pathway for others.

How would she make this sustainable?  Maybe she creates an interactive play that can go on the road to different schools?  And maybe she can script it so that others can perform it as well.  And she can use her leadership to make a difference. 

I hope the girl in the article found her way through this tough time, and that Girl Scouting helped play a positive role in her life.  

Troop Meetings

I’ve heard some really great ideas at a Cadette Training class this year, and thought I’d start passing them on.  If they can work for you and your girls, GREAT!  And if not for now, maybe for later.

There was great discussion about how social these 6^th and 7^th graders are.  They want to be with their friends in the troop and they want to have fun.  These girls want to chat and compare notes.  But with only two troop meetings a month that are 2 hours long, they weren’t getting enough time to do it AND getting the work of the troop done.

The leader of one troop told us about how the girls voted to have their troop meetings on  Friday nights, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., I think.  (No Friday football games, yet!)  And once a month, they would add a dinner from 5:00-6:00, then have the meeting from 6 to 8, and THEN have an overnight. She said the girls knew this was the plan, and it motivated them to get their troop work done, so that they could have fun time.

It sounded like some Fridays everyone was asleep by 10, and others went into the midnight hours.  Regardless, all girls were picked up at 8:00 a.m. the next morning, so there was plenty of time for their soccer/baseball/swimming/you name it activities on the Saturday.

When I told this to one training class, they were stunned that someone would have a sleepover at their house every month.  Then someone said, but what if it was scheduled per year, and every/most parents knew they had it one time?  What if meetings in May were at one house, June in another, etc.?  That would loop the parents into participating with snack/food/meetings AND not put the burden on just the troop leader and her family.

Another said, maybe once a quarter?  Maybe not once a month?  Whatever works for your girls, I say!!!  Use the idea or don’t!  See what the girls want, and how it can work.

Change it up!  Keep it fresh! Ask the girls for their ideas, and go from there….