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The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting
Girl Scouting is transitioning its resources in order to build a nationally consistent Girl Scout program that consists of two primary resources focused on helping girls build leadership skills: Journeys and The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
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 yearlong activities that girls help plan in collaboration with adult volunteers.
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Journeys are the core of all leadership experiences and program opportunities for girls.
- 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 Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards remain the highest awards in Girl Scouting.)
- Three complete sets of journeys are currently available, including the newest series called "It's Your Story – Tell It."
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 available through any of our Council Shops. They 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 an d volunteers, as well as a respectful nod to the great traditions that are a part of our nearly 100-year-old legacy.
Each of our six grade levels has its own guide. As girls transition into new levels, they can begin enjoying the new badges in The Girl's Guide to 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 Gordon Low's progressive -- perhaps even revolutionary -- idea that girls can be leaders, which has always been reflected in our badges and awards. Read GSUSA's Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
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 grade level, is a combination of the badge book and the handbook. The new Girl's Guide does NOT come with adult guide books. Volunteers will apply the same concepts from the journey adult facilitator guides to the badge activities.
- Girls 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, two sets of skill-building badges relate 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.
Girl Scout Merchandise
As part of our program transition, Girl Scouts is 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?
- 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 Girl Scout Council Shop to make sure inventory is available.
- Our shops are committed to finding the stock you need -- but inventory may be lmited 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.
- If you have questions about our current shop inventory, please e-mail our shop sales team or call 800.284.4475.
 
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