HOW TO GET YOUR LEAGUE INVOLVED WITH RUNNING A GIRL GUIDES PROGRAM Plus get Cookies for your board meetings!
Girl Guides, Brownies, Sparks, Pathfinders and Rangers. We are all very well known for our minty chocolate cookies in October and our yummy chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies in the spring. However, the Guiding tradition in Edmonton goes beyond cookies and dates back over 90 years!
What is Girl Guides of Canada?
Guiding has its roots in the community and it is where the girls participate in activities to become responsible and active citizens. Many women in leading roles in our society, once sold cookies on the doorsteps in your community.
Today’s guiding continues to provide local opportunities for girls to meet other girls in their own neighbourhoods. Together, they learn to have respect and take responsibility for making their neighbourhood a better place to live. Through service projects, fieldtrips, special guests to their units, and taking on a leadership role, Guiding provides a safe and supportive environment where girls thrive. Guiding gives girls the tools and resources they need to achieve Greatness!
For the benefits of having Guiding Groups check out our online article
What is the benefit of having Guiding groups in your community league facilities?
Partnerships are all about putting joint energies into a project and both parties benefitting from the outcomes.
Guiding groups take great pride in their meeting spaces. Girls help to ensure their meeting space is clean, and with 20 seven year olds sweeping the floors, sometimes cleaner than when we got there!
Older girls volunteer to help with activities like spring cleaning/fall cleaning/ park cleaning and some groups even help with face painting and games at CL events, or serving meals for special occasions.
Girls in Guiding build a connection to their neighbourhood. They are more likely to not get into mischievous activities in their communities, because it is important to them to take responsibility for their actions and make good choices.
They develop friendships with other girls in their neighbourhood because they are meeting in their own neighbourhood. Society puts a lot of emphasis on parents taking their children out of neighbourhoods for special school programs, dance, sports, and music lessons. Guiding brings the girls back to develop a sense of community and neighbourliness.
Parents meet their neighbours when they drop off and pick up their children and develop new friendships. Having a Guiding group in your hall brings adults into your hall and they get to see what is on your bulletin boards.. They become aware of what your league is involved with.
We also provide an opportunity for girls who need volunteer hours for school, university students and women who want a part time volunteer opportunities. Including flexibility around school exam and project schedules.
Some community leagues have provided program space to our units for over 30 years. They see the benefits and continue to partner with us.
Starting up a unit is as easy as 1-2-3!
1 - Let the word out that your league wants to open its’ doors to a Guiding group. Have your community league Program Director contact Edmonton Area at 780-451-2263. Our Guiding volunteers will help you get the word out. We can provide posters and brochures for you to place in your community gathering places. Camera ready ads for newsletters and websites. We can come to community events and set up a display.
2 – Recruit women who would like to volunteer to lead the girls. Invite residents to contact your community league Program Director, to let them know they are interested. When you have 3 women who are excited about Guiding and are willing to lead the group, phone your Guiding contact who will orientate and train the women to prepare them to open the unit.
Like volunteers in community league programs, such as soccer and baseball, all Guiding volunteers go through an interview process, a security clearance check and are provided training for their volunteer position. Residents in the city of Edmonton know that community leagues and Guiding have a trustworthy system in place to reassure parents that their children are in safe hands when attending the programs.
3 - Invite families to enrol their girls in our program. Invite your new Guiding volunteers to set up a table at your league registration days. Let the girls submit articles to your community newsletters.
Who can join our Guiding programs?
Girls and women can join Guiding at any age. Guiding is open to all girls and women without distinction of creed, race, nationality, or any other circumstance. As the leading organization in Canada for girls and women, GGC strives to reflect the diversity of our country and of our communities.
Does your league have to provide any financial assistance or other support?
Guiding comes as a complete package! We carry our own insurance, we fundraise independently for our program expenses, we train and supervise our volunteers.
Do you have children in your neighbourhood who can’t afford program fees? We even have Guiding assistance programs for those families who require access to them.
Guiding relies on developing close relationships with the agencies and organizations and appreciate their contribution of allowing us to use their space for free. Guiding programs run on the fundraising efforts of the girls and their families. The units run on a small budget and the support of using your hall lets us put the dollars into the programming for the youth.