Girl Scouting is open to all girls in grades K-12 who can make the Girl Scout Promise and accept the Girl Scout Law.
Girl Scout Promise On my honor, I will try: To serve God* and my country, To help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.
Girl Scout Law I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.
*The organization stresses that when reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word “God” with whatever word a child or family's spiritual beliefs dictate.
If you would like to know more about Girl Scouts, volunteering or enrolling a girl in a Scouting program, call 1-800-767-6845.
You can also fi nd registration forms online: www.girlscoutsww.org/become_girlscout.
For more information about Girl Scouts of Western Washington go to: www.girlscoutsww.org.
It's 7 p.m. when the troop leader raises the three-finger sign that every Girl Scout and her mother around the globe know: Shhhhhhhh.
One by one, 12 girls bedecked in Girl Scout green and Brownie brown, nine mothers in jeans and tennis shoes, and a scattering of volunteers pipe down and hoist their hands in the triple-digit silence salute.
As do the three prison guards in the corner keeping watch over the gathering.
These mothers and daughters, of course, are not coming together in a neighborhood home, as Girl Scout troops have since Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low held the first official meeting in 1912. Instead, they are part of the Western Washington Girl Scout Council's growing emphasis on outreach to underserved communities and its commitment to making Scouting possible for every girl, no matter her economic, cultural or social background.
As participants in the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program, these girls, ages 7 to 17, have gone through a metal detector, guard scrutiny, three heavy security doors and three razor-topped fences to gather with their mothers at the state women's prison in Purdy, Washington.
“I've come here long enough now I don't even think about it,” says Inaya*, age 10, of the onerous entry. “But I remember when I first started coming, I was so worried the machine would go off and wouldn't let me get in. I really worried about it and checked all my pockets all the time.”
There are many unique aspects to the Beyond Bars program, including the ever-present guards, the security regimen and the fact that these meetings may be the only ones in the local Scouting system where there are as many tears at greetings as there are at good-byes.
Sitting in the waiting room waiting for their moms to arrive, almost every girl is craning her neck toward the inmate entrance, jittery, waiting to see whose mother will emerge first. As they arrive one-by-one, there are girlish shouts, quiet tears, and huge hugs.
Each time these mothers and daughters from various troops around the region come to Purdy to form a single troop behind bars, an entire month has passed since most of the mothers and daughters have seen each other, let alone hugged, talked, or played.
But the time these mothers and daughters spend together in the prison gym doing typical Scouting activities – crafts, talking circles and games – is one of the mothers' only opportunities to practice hands-on parenting, and the daughters' opportunity to connect with their moms intimately.
“We have the chance to talk about whatever our daughters are going through, to teach them what we have learned, to help them grow up stable,” says Angela, who has been imprisoned since 2007 and still has more than four years to go before her sentence is up.
“This program has really helped me with my relationship with my daughter,” Angela adds. “She's matured so much emotionally, and I know it's because of this.”
Angela's daughter, age 10, has been attending the Scouting program for two years. Before that, mother-daughter visits would be limited to across-the-table chatter with minimal contact in a room full of other inmates and their loved ones.
As with any Girl Scouts program, the aim of Beyond Bars is girl empowerment – strengthening life skills, leadership potential and self-esteem. For many girls, being in the program has helped them to articulate difficult feelings about their family situation. Scout leaders work with both mothers and daughters to direct such emotions toward positive growth.
“The first time I came to see the program, the mothers and girls were all sitting in a circle and the question the mothers raised for that circle time was, ‘How do you feel when I can't attend a parent/teacher school conference?' One girl waited a while and then she responded, ‘How do you feel when we have to go?' They work on hard questions here, real questions,” says Joe Barnes, Chief Marketing and Development Officer for Girl Scouts of Western Washington. “It was all I could do not to cry.”
“When you have a mom in prison, you feel alone,” says Mecca Stevenson, Scouting program manager. “The girls feel invisible, and it's a very invisible population where many are not getting support anywhere. It's not something they often talk about, and they live in isolation.”
The girls meet in their regular troop meetings in Everett, Tacoma and Kent two or three times a month. Then, once a month, an intricate transportation system is woven together to get them all to the prison for the mother-daughter meeting. Inside the prison, mothers meet monthly with the Girl Scouting staff to plan the next meeting and decide on topics to discuss with their daughters. Like moms outside the prison, they run the meetings when the girls arrive, hungry for mom time.
“I feel really lucky, I get to spend hours with my mom,” says Inaya. “She has taught me a lot and I really respect her, even if she made a mistake that means she is here.”
Inaya's mother, Lisa, says the four years she has participated in the Beyond Bars program with her daughter have strengthened their bond. With more than 20 years to go on her sentence, Lisa says Girl Scouts is a touchstone that she cannot imagine her life without.
“When I get out, I will be a grandmother,” Lisa says. “But I am a mom now and this program has helped me be that. We have these hours together and she can talk to me about what's really happening in her life, and she is able to say things she might not feel comfortable saying with (another family member like her brother) right there.
“I have this unique chance to tell her about my experience and hopefully she learns from what I've done and how I've changed,” says Lisa. “Through this program we get to do things with our girls that most parents in prison just don't get to do.”
This year, the girls in the Beyond Bars program had a sleepover at Purdy, an experience mothers and daughters say they will never forget.
“I got to sleep next to my daughter for the first time in years, have her wake up next to me,” Lisa says, tears filling her eyes.
Inaya, whose Scouting sash is filled with merit badges her mom helped her earn, gets almost squeaky at the memory: “I was so excited! I am still talking to my friends about it.”
What does she say to friends who ask about her mom? The program has helped Inaya formulate her answer as well as strengthen the faith and resolve with which she delivers it:
“I say she's in prison. She made a mistake, but she is a great mom. I don't want you to feel sorry for me.”
Marissa, age 10, is right there.
“My mom is helping me learn how to be a good person, and this program has helped me understand why she's here. She's in here because she made a bad choice and that's OK. You can learn from your mistakes.”
*(Editor's note: The Girl Scouts requested that the last names of girls and mothers in the program not be used.)
The Changing Face of Girl Scouts Two Years Later, Council Merger Means Better Outreach and More Camping Options for Western Washington Girls
It's been two years since the Girl Scouts Totem Council, which served girls north of the King-Pierce County line, merged with the Pacific Peaks Council, which served girls to the South. The merger, part of a national movement to strengthen the Girl Scouts system and equalize councils across the country, created a unified council that encompasses all of Western Washington.
For the 26,000 Girl Scouts on this side of the Cascades, the merger has meant that Scouts and troops get to choose from six different camps, rather than the three that each council ran as separate organizations.
But the area that has been the most strengthened by the merger is imperceptible to most Scouts: It greatly enhanced the council's ability to coordinate and expand outreach programs to underserved communities.
The merged Girl Scouts of Western Washington has made it a priority to serve girls in areas where traditional troops don't make sense or where girls simply cannot participate in after-school activities. It's part of a national movement to meet the mission of making Scouting accessible to every girl by removing the barriers that have kept girls from taking part – whether because they are foster kids, from immigrant families, have mothers behind bars or face some other barrier.
The local council has grown outreach programs slowly, with a focus on building a long-term funding base.
“We are working with kids who are very vulnerable,” says Grace Chien, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Western Washington. “What we didn't want to happen was for there to be a program that came in with funding one year and then couldn't continue the next year.”
In addition to solidifying the Beyond Bars program, the Council has expanded the Girl Scouts Fostering a Future program, a local Scouting initiative that brings girls in foster care together in single troops. The program provides its Scouts stability, personal skill-building and leadership experience, and the chance to meet and befriend peers of like experience.
Children in foster care present a unique challenge for the neighborhood group-based model that has guided most of Girl Scouting history. Many kids change foster homes several times while in the care of the state, forcing a change in schools, friends, and supportive connections.
Through the Fostering a Future program, girls in foster care join a troop made up of other children “just like them,” says Chien. If they must change homes, the Scouting program provides transportation so that they can remain in the same group with the same leaders, mentors, and friends.
“Girls who are in foster care lack stability in their lives and that lack of continuity can really affect a girl's ability to develop socially and emotionally and to make friends,” Chien explains. “The girls in our program know they will come back to this troop regardless of where they have moved. It becomes an important support network for them.”
Sammy McDonald, age 18, believes that joining the Fostering a Future program nearly eight years ago was one of the most important choices she's made in her life. The program has been a lifeline to caring adults and the kind of mentorship that has turned McDonald into a true leader: This year, she was made a state delegate to the national Girl Scouting Council.
Normally a self-described “social butterfly,” McDonald, now a high school junior, became shy and scared of people when she went into foster care at age 10. When she learned about the program, she was eager to join, but nervous.
“I wanted to be part of a group,” she says. “I remember my first day in the troop and what I remember most is the girls were really kind to me. I didn't really understand at the time that they were all in foster care, too.”
She says she is lucky – she has been with the same foster family for her entire time in foster care. But she has stood by many fellow Scouts whose families changed once or more during their time in the troop.
“We share a lot and have had a lot of conversations about our experiences, and by sharing our stories it's helped me understand my own story and be able to share it outside,” says McDonald.
Troop leaders for the approximately 200 girls who participate in the Beyond Bars and Fostering a Future programs focus on helping kids to develop critical life skills. At the same time, troop leaders and the larger organization strive to ensure that each girl experiences the historic rites of Scouting, including songs, games, cookie sales, badges and camp.
The council also runs the Girl Scouting in the School Day program developed to serve girls in low-income schools – those that have a population where 70 percent or more of the students are enrolled in the free or reduced-price lunch program. Girl Scout staff meet with teachers to determine what skills the girls in their classes need help with. Girls in a classroom are then separated from boys in the class, and a troop meeting is held during the school day.
Likewise, the young women who participate in the Girl Scouts Skills for Life program generally would not, for either cultural or other reasons, participate in a typical neighborhood troop. Based out of low-income housing communities, the program serves girls from immigrant families, with a focus on building aspirations beyond high school.
The last decade has brought a lot of change to Scouting in the region.
“What we've discovered is that the model of neighborhood troops led by volunteers didn't necessarily work for everyone,” Chien says.
“The way we try to achieve the mission today has evolved dramatically,” she adds. “But it's based on the same values. The Girl Scout values are timeless.”
For more information about Girl Scouts of Western Washington go to: www.girlscoutsww.org.
