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Girl Scouts of Western Washington 

Description

With more than 26,000 K-12 Girl Scouts in 17 Western Washington counties, GSWW is committed to serving a diverse community of girls. Through our financial assistance and outreach programs, each year we serve more than 2,500 girls in low-income families.

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience is designed to ensure that every Girl Scout achieves 15 outcomes organized around three themes:

  • Discover. Girls understand themselves, their values, and their world.
  • Connect. Girls care about, inspire, and team with others.
  • Take Action. Girls act to make the world a better place.

 

Mission Statement
Girl Scouts of Western Washington (GSWW) builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. Girl Scouts allows girls to discover their own style of leadership by giving them access to life-changing experiences that inspire them to do something big. Our vision is to be the best leadership development program for girls.
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Girl Scouts of Western Washington
601 Valley Street 
Seattle 
WA
98109 
(800) 767-6845 

Megan Ferland 
Chief Executive Officer 

Programs

Girl Scouts of Western Washington Programs

GSWW provides girls with five flexible “pathways” to benefit from the inspiring opportunities for personal growth and leadership development provided by Girl Scouts:
  • Troops, where girls learn and grow together over a school-year with the support of adult volunteers;
  • Camps, which provide overnight and daytime programs in the spring, summer and fall;
  • Series, Events and Travel, where girls have the opportunity to participate in fun and challenging activities that take place on a single day or over a series of weeks.
In our current strategic plan, we’ve identified four program initiatives to develop and implement innovative, engaging, high-quality programs. Our four focus areas include:
  • Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
  • College Readiness
  • Environmental and Outdoor Education
  • Global Responsibility 
For example, in STEM, throughout the year we offer numerous science workshops for girls, including Astronomy, Archeology Adventures, Crime Scene Investigation and a FIRST LEGO League all-girl Robotics team. As part of our College Ready Program, we provide middle and high school girls in low-income public schools and communities with college and career readiness activities, the Girl Scout Leadership Experience program, and academic support to strengthen girls’ study skills and academic success.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

All five of our Girl Scout pathways empower girls to discover, connect, and take action on issues that concern them, and all are tied to the outcomes we’ve identified as critical to their healthy development. Through our programs, a girl has the opportunity to:
  • develop practical life skills;
  • discover herself as she forms positive values;
  • connect with others through healthy relationships;
  • learn how to resolve conflicts when needed;
  • take action in her community by feeling empowered to make a difference;
  • inspire others through her leadership.
To measure how girls change and grow in these areas through their Girl Scout experiences, GSWW administers an annual outcomes survey. In 2010-11:
  • 77% of girls reported developing positive values, with 89% indicating that Girl Scouts had an impact in this area.
  • 75% of girls reported engaging in constructive community activities either by identifying issues in their community and/or participating in community service projects.
  • 83% indicated that their participation in Girl Scouts had made them want to help others in their community more.
  • 77% demonstrated leadership and personal responsibility, and 81% said that Girl Scouts had helped them in that area. 
GSWW is committed to ensuring that every girl in Western Washington has an opportunity to participate in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience, regardless of her circumstances. To accomplish this, we must further expand and diversify our extensive volunteer network and develop new partnerships with schools, peer organizations and donors to provide Girl Scout programs to more under-served, low-income communities.

Evaluation


Girl Scouts of Western Washington (GSWW)uses education programs and environmental stewardship based in a community setting to address the unique developmental needs and issues facing girls. GSWW is a national leader among Girl Scout councils in designing outreach programs for girls at significantly higher risk of dropping out of school, drug and alcohol abuse, and criminal behavior.

Use of Best Practices
In order to systematically assess the success of its programming, GSWW has implemented the Youth Program Quality Assessment Instrument (YPQI), which gauges program quality using such key indicators as youth-directed learning, safety, and training of youth workers.

Accessibility and Cultural Competency
GSWW’s primary strategy for achieving its mission and providing access to thousands of girls is the effective mobilization of volunteers; strong community connections are forged and strengthened through local networks of girls and volunteers. However, because many girls don’t have access to safe neighborhoods or robust volunteer networks, GSWW has developed a rich array of outreach programs and has successfully developed new program-delivery methods to meet the needs of underserved populations.

One such example is the Girl Scout Leadership and Career Ready Program, which brings GSWW programming into under-served, low-income schools and communities in South Seattle and South King County. GSWW staff works closely with teachers to customize a curriculum to best meet the social and emotional needs of girls from kindergarten to 12th grade, strengthening girls’ self-efficacy and academic motivation as they transitions into middle and high school.

Collaboration
GSWW has developed strong partnerships with government and nonprofit agencies in order to leverage additional resources on behalf of the girls they serve. Examples include: the Girl Scout Leadership and Career Ready Program; a partnership with Seattle University to develop a curriculum for training Girl Scout leaders how to use inquiry-based methods in troop science programs; a collaboration with the Kent School District to help track the academic progress of the girls enrolled in GSWW’s Girl Scouts Fostering a Future program; and work with the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to link their caseworkers to GSWW staff and programs for girls in foster and kinship care.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
9/14/2010 $5,000.00to support financial aid for girls from low-income families in Clallam County.
9/10/2010 $20,000.00support general operating expenses.
9/24/2009 $5,000.00to provide financial assistance to low-income girls from Clallam County.
6/4/2009 $23,000.00fund replacement of decking for swim dock at Camp Lyle McLeod.
10/1/2008 $7,500.00support general operating expenses, specifically to support low-income girls and families in Clallam County.
6/11/2008 $74,600.00support the purchase and renovation of a Girl Scout regional office in the Bremerton area.
3/22/2007 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/12/2003 $75,000.00support the capital campaign to expand and renovate Camp River Ranch.

Financials

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