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The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting

Pre-Order your Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting!

In September 2011, Girl Scouts at every program level will have 2 books to use that will make them part of a powerful sisterhood. Girl Scouts of the USA has streamlined and simplified the Girl Scout program. Beginning in September 2011, the national program experience will consist of two elements:

  • Journeys, of which there are currently three in the series, are the core of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. They provide the opportunity to earn badges, awards, and keepsake jewelry around central themes such as our planet and world.
  • The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting is the new Girl Scout badge/handbook, which will be available this fall (2011). The Girl’s Guide will provide additional skill building badge activities and Girl Scout awards based on legacy badges, and Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, just to name a few. For current and future stock availability, please call the Albany Service Center at 518.489.8110.

The Girl’s Guide will be available September 2011 (However, due to high demand, the Girl’s Guides are currently on back order. Please contact our store at 489-8110 for more information), with the transition period running through September 2012.

  • Girls will have plenty of badges and awards available to earn!
  • There is a Girl’s Guide for each of the six Girl Scout levels.
  • The Girl’s Guide will come in the form of a binder so girls can add to it as they go along.
  • What’s great for girls? The new badges offer girls variety, choice and relevance. Now, girls, parents and volunteers will have an easier time understanding the requirements for badges.
  • In addition to the awards they are earning through the Journeys, the Girl’s Guide gives girls the opportunity to earn Legacy badges, Financial Literacy badges, as well as Cookie Business badges at each level.

The Girl’s Guide is the girl’s fluid program backbone. The facilitator’s guides are found with the journeys.

Click on image to enlarge.


What Will You Find in The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting?

Handbook Section

My Girl Scouts Section
The My Girl Scouts section is designed just for girls, and allows girls to personalize their Girl Scout experience.

Legacy Badges

  • Artist
  • The Girl Scout Way
  • Citizen
  • Cook
  • First Aid
  • Athlete
  • Naturalist

Financial Literacy Badges
Girls can earn a different Financial Literacy Badge each year.
(Daisies earn Financial Literacy “leaves.”)

Cookie Business Badges
Girls can earn a different Cookie Business Badge each year.
(Daisies earn Cookie Business “leaves.”)

Make Your Own
An opportunity for girls to pursue to beloved topics that are important to them. This badge category definitely offers greater customization. Badges will have the same age level shape as the current badges, and will be professionally made by one of our manufacturers.

PLUS
My Promise, My Faith Pin
Journey Summit Pin
For Designated Levels

  • Program Aide (P.A.), Counselor-in-Training (CIT), Leader-in-Training is now Volunteer-in-Training (VIT)
  • Bronze, Silver, Gold Awards

Why The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting?

The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting will be age-level appropriate handbooks for girls that include badge-earning activities and more, all in one place. The guides are designed to complement the Journeys, with activities that build specific skills for which girls earn badges. Content is being driven by input and feedback from girls and volunteers, as well as a respectful nod to the great traditions that are a part of our nearly 100-year-old legacy.

How does this tie into Journeys?

Today’s girls don’t want to just follow a set of instructions. They want to reflect, make choices, take action, and determine their own paths. Journeys are the exciting, flexible foundation for year-long activities that girls help plan in collaboration with adult volunteers.

  • Journeys are the core of all leadership experiences.
  • Journeys build on independent topics and can be used in any order.
  • They provide an exploration of all three keys to leadership: Discover, Connect and Take Action.
  • The journey awards are the only awards that specifically engage girls in these three keys.
  • They tie directly to the 15 national outcomes and include facilitators’ guides with great suggestions for how adults can inspire girls.The journey awards are important for girls to earn because they represent much more than the accomplishment of a new skill; they represent a girl’s journey through/exploration of a complete topic. (Of course, the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards remain the highest awards in Girl Scouting.)

What about badges?

Badges are here to stay! Earning awards and recognitions has been an integral part of Girl Scouting for nearly a century, and we’re not going to change that now. After all, it was Juliette Low’s progressive — perhaps even revolutionary — idea that girls can be leaders that has always been reflected in our badges and awards.

What we are going to do is refresh things.

Here’s how the badges will be presented in the new materials:

  • The new Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, one for each level, will be a combination of the badge book and the handbook. The new Girl’s Guide will NOT come with adult guide books. Volunteers will apply the same concepts from the journey adult facilitator guides to the badge activities.
  • Girls will have the opportunity to earn journey awards; badges; Bronze, Silver, Gold, and other leadership awards; and, of course, pins and patches.
  • Because financial literacy is such an important part of Girl Scouting, there will be two sets of skill-building badges related to the Cookie Program. One reinforces the importance of financial literacy and the lifelong advantages to understanding financial concepts, even at an early age. The other makes a direct connection between the specific activities that girls naturally accomplish by participating in the Cookie Program and the skills they develop by doing so: public speaking, marketing and sales skills, and money management.

What about current Girl Scout badges, awards & books?

As part of our program transition, Girl Scouts will be retiring some materials including some current badges, awards and books. Girl Scout books are always great resources and can be used to provide additional program ideas. Leaders should add these books to their personal or service unit libraries.

What should you do between now and September 2012?

  • Help girls choose a journey. Check out the online journey maps for inspiration and creative ways to consider how journeys and badges work together to ensure a great Girl Scout experience!
  • If your troop is working or set to begin work on a badge project, contact the Albany Service Center at 518.489.8110 to make sure inventory is available. Our shop is committed to finding the stock you need, but as the transition nears inventory may become limited across the country. With cookie proceeds in troop bank accounts, a troop leader can always consider purchasing the items needed before the project is completed.

Check out our FAQ sheets.