Girl
Scouts now has a Make Your Own Badge program, in which girls select a skill
they want to learn then create the badge for that skill themselves. Girls take
part in everything from setting requirements for earning the badges to
finalizing designs—truly making it a girl-led program.
The
creation of the Make Your Own Badge program started with girls. In focus
groups, girls exhibited substantial interest in the Make Your Own Badge
concept. Based on that interest, GSUSA developed the program and included it in
The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, a result of the organization’s recent
overhaul of its badge programs. Badges now come in categories: Legacy
(traditional badges), Financial Literacy, Cookie Business, Skill Building and
Make Your Own. There are also specialty awards such as My Promise, My Faith,
which helps a girl understand and celebrate the commonalities between her faith
and the Girl Scout Law.
Girls can
still earn popular longtime badges such as Cook, Naturalist and Athlete as part
of the Legacy badges—topics as relevant today as they were in 1912—but now they
have the Make Your Own Badge, which can be whatever a girl wants it to
be. These badges do have to be approved by the Council.
“We hope
the Make Your Own Badge program connects girls with some of the traditions in
Girl Scouting,” says Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama CEO Trish Coghlan.
“It can also open doors to new experiences such as advocacy, science and
technology related badges, or even faith-based badges.”
About
Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama
2012 is the
Year of the Girl! To get involved, visit our 100th anniversary link at www.girlscoutsnca.org/100. Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama
is a United Way community partner and serves 15,300 girls ages 5-17 and 5,000
volunteers across 36 counties. For more information on becoming a member,
volunteering or pathway opportunities, call 800-734-4541 or visit www.girlscoutsnca.org.
