Highest Awards

What’s the Difference?

Take Action vs. Service Project

Giving back is always in season at Girl Scouts. Encourage your girls to harness that spirit of goodwill and bring their charitable intentions to life! As they look for meaningful ways to contribute to their community, you can help sharpen their problem-solving skills and expand their definition of philanthropy by discussing community service and Take Action projects. Take Action projects are required to complete the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Award. Need help knowing the difference? Here’s a few things to remember! Service (or Community Service) Projects make the world a better place right now. Whether your girls engage in a short-term community service project, like collecting toys for kids who live in shelters or a long-term project, like weekly volunteer shifts at a soup kitchen, their work fills an immediate need in the community.

Take Action Projects take community service to the next level. Though the girls still identify areas in which they’d like to help their communities, a Take Action project addresses the root of an issue and creates a lasting effect. For Take Action Projects girls educate, publicize, and involve people in the community to come out and support it. Girls can even get community leaders involved. Unlike community service projects, Take Action projects go a step further than collecting, making, and donating needed items. Community service projects stop when girls stop, but Take Action projects are continual and sustainable.

Whether you and your troop complete a community service project or Take Action project— Girl Scouts can help their community in so many ways!

Go for the Gold

Gold Award Girl Scouts are rock stars, role models, and real-life heroes. How do they do it? By using everything they’ve learned as a Girl Scout to help fix a problem in their community or make a lasting change in their world. Girl Scouts who want to get involved and go for the Gold Award get a team of trusted adults and leaders in their community to guide them through challenges and lead them to success, step-by-step. There’s no other program like it. Here’s how girls can get started: • Create a GoGold Account at gogold.girlscouts.org. • Be a High School student. • Be a registered Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador. • Complete 2 Senior or Ambassador Journeys OR 1 Journey and the Girl Scout Silver Award. Before girls submit their project proposal, remind them to do their research! Here’s how you can help her start brainstorming: • Find an issue that speaks to her. The number one reason Girl Scouts do not finish their Gold Award is a lack of passion, so help her find a topic she cares about! • Encourage her to go into her community and see what troubles the community. Talk to local leaders, teachers, or religious leaders for some insight. • Build a team. Having a team of people to help her see her vision and make it come true is a vital part and will help her feel supported. • Help connect her with a project advisor! This person can help guide her along the way. Although we know troop leaders love to take on this role, encourage her to make a community connection and find a project advisor outside of her troop.

Did you know?

Gold Award Girl Scouts can apply to receive a scholarship through GoGold!

What You Need to Know

• Gold Award Proposals must be approved before the start of a project. We have a committee that looks over them, think of them as your extra Gold Award Advisors! • We will communicate directly with girls what follow up or additional details are needed after she submits her project. • The Gold Award—like all highest awards—needs to be a Take Action project that leaves a lasting impact on the community. • Girls can raise funds for their project or ask the community for in kind donations! Girls can get materials donated, or raise funds to buy materials. Prior to collecting monetary donations, girls need to fill out a Money Earning Activity Application, which can be found under forms on our website.

Go for the Silver

When girls team up with a small group of Girl Scout friends to find an issue they care about and then make a difference in their community, they can earn the Girl Scout Silver Award. Here’s how girls can get started: • Be a registered Girl Scout Cadette. • Complete a Cadette Journey. Before girls start their project, remind them to do their research! Here’s how you can help them start brainstorming: • Help them identify a topic they care about. If they earned their

Bronze Award, girls can also build upon that same topic! • Build a team. The Silver Award can be done either as a troop or as an individual, but the girls will still need a project advisor. • Know the difference between a community service project and a Take Action project. Need help? Check out page 40! • Reference our Silver Project Guide, found on our website, to help you along the way! • Raising funds for the project is okay—just help girls complete a

Money Earning Activity Application, found under forms on our website.

What You Need to Know

• The Silver Award submission process has gone digital! When girls complete their project they will need to submit the online

Girl Scout Silver Award Final Report, found on our Silver Award web page. • Silver Award Projects do not need to be pre-approved.

But make sure your girls are still following guidelines for fundraising, donations, and the Take Action Projects. • If you don’t know where to get started that is okay! You can reach out to your Volunteer Support Staff for help at any time! • Once girls have earned the award—celebrate! We encourage you to have a special pinning ceremony to honor the girls’ success.

Go for the Bronze

When Girl Scout Juniors team up to make a difference in their community, they learn important leadership skills, discover new passions, and watch how seemingly small actions make a big difference. It all adds up to the Girl Scout Bronze Award—the highest honor a Junior can achieve. Here’s how your girls can get started: • Be a registered Girl Scout Junior. • Complete a Junior Journey. Before girls start their project, remind them to do their research! Here’s how you can help them start brainstorming: • This is her first Girl Scout Highest Award! Now is the perfect time to sit down and talk about the difference between a service project and a Take Action Project. Need help knowing the difference?

Check out page 40! • Help your girls explore their community and find an issue that means something to them. This might help the girls decide what issue and Take Action Project they would like to complete.

What You Need to Know

• The Bronze Award submission process has gone digital! When girls complete their project they will need help submitting the online Girl Scout Bronze Award Final Report, found on our Bronze

Award page. • Once submitted and approved, we will mail out the certificates! You can then call our shop to purchase pins for your Bronze Award Girl Scouts! • The Bronze Award can be done as a group or individually. If done as a group, each girl will still get her own certificate from us.

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