Community Service Partner Guide

Take Action Projects Girl Scout Journeys take the girl leadership game to new heights. They enable girls to choose how they want to experience and influence the world, while preparing them to address some of society’s most-pressing needs through hands-on learning and real-life problem solving. After girls discover and connect with a new subject they have learned about through the Journey, the final step to earning the award is to complete a Take Action Project. A Take Action project is a chance for girls to partner with others in their community to solve a problem. They learn about getting to the root causes of issues, mobilizing and engaging community members and volunteers, and striving toward creating lasting change in their world. Highest Awards Girls shine brightest when making the world a better place. That’s why they can earn three separate awards—the Girl Scout Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards—as they dream of a better tomorrow and take action in big ways today. • Daisies and Brownies learn the basics of what it means to be a good neighbor and how they can be helpful to others. This gives them the foundation they will need to earn the Bronze Award. • Juniors earn the Bronze Award by teaming up with their troop to make a difference in their town. • Cadettes work in a small group or individually to earn the Silver Award by researching an issue, making a plan to address it, and then taking action to improve their communities. • Seniors and Ambassadors work individually to earn the Gold Award—the highest award in Girl Scouting—by developing and carrying out lasting solutions to issues in their neighborhoods and beyond. Gold Award Girl Scouts truly are the world changers, rock stars, role models, and real-life heroes we all look up to. Girls must come up with project ideas on their own. While you may have lots of great ideas for projects with your organization, we are not able to promote them to our girls. The girls must identify the need in the community and develop a plan to address the issue. If they identify a need that your organization helps meet, they may reach out to collaborate on a project. Girls who are working to earn their Gold Award use project advisors for guidance and expertise as needed, during the planning and execution of their project. On the Community Service Partner Agreement you can express interest in learning more about becoming a project advisor for our girls. As an advisor, you may be a sounding board throughout the project, refer the Girl Scout to colleagues to interview or seek advice, refer her to additional resources for her research or review her final proposal before it is submitted. Note that it’s important that the project and its core ideas be the Girl Scout’s own.

Below is a chart showing the difference between community service that our girls may perform for your organization and the work that is needed for the service learning projects.

Community Service Take Action/Service Learning Addresses an immediate need Addresses a root cause of an issue One time; short term Sustainable/ongoing impact FOR the community (e.g., collecting blankets for a local animal shelter)

WITH the community (e.g., partnering with the animal shelter to create a solution—raising awareness about the importance of spaying/ neutering pets; hosting adoption events—to eliminate the need for short-term fixes altogether)

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