Alive with a new logo and new brand, the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama (GSNCA) is also ensuring that all Girl Scouts have the opportunity to grow and be challenged within their programs. By revamping their badge and program structure, introducing more Pathways into Girl Scouts and enhancing the older girls’ experience, GSNCA hopes the new brand brings a new recognition to an almost 100-year old iconic organization.
Known by the tagline of What Did You Do Today?, this campaign will play a large role in reaching the older girl audience. By asking the question, what did you do today, and sharing stories about what local Girl Scouts have done, GSNCA plans to continuously highlight that Girl Scouts are out in the community more than once a year selling cookies. They are traveling, building leadership skills and advocating for themselves and causes in which they have a passion. This new message will be shared through popular media allowing GSNCA to reintroduce themselves to girls, parents and volunteers.
“A revitalized and energized brand is absolutely essential for us and our future growth,” said Trish Coghlan, Chief Executive Officer of GSNCA. “About one out of every 16 girls within the 36 counties GSNCA serves participates in Girl Scouting and that’s a tremendous number when you think about it. But that also means that we have a great opportunity to grow even after almost 100 years. We have literally revamped our entire organization to appeal to that 94 percent of girls who aren’t benefiting from the Girl Scout leadership experience. We think we have the right message at the right time with our new brand.”
While the new brand will advertise the available opportunities, GSNCA will add additional ways girls can get involved with Girl Scouting. This fall, they will introduce more Pathways which will help girls find activities that will specifically interest them or their troop. Upon registering, a Girl Scout, or troop, will have broad categories - Pathways – from which to choose. There are six different Pathways: Camp, Events, Series, Travel, Troops and Virtual.
•The Camp Pathway involves participation in day and overnight camp experiences. It is primarily focused on environmental and outdoor education.
•The Events Pathway allows girls to participate in several onetime events. Girl Scouts get to choose which events they wish to attend and can participate in several within a year. Some examples of events are NASA’s space days where girls build rockets and local universities’ programs for teen girls.
•The Series Pathway is a series of multiple sessions relating to a specific theme or purpose. Series can range from a three-day leadership conference to meeting once a week for eight weeks to participate in the Change Your World Journey.
•The Travel Pathway offers girls leadership and cross-cultural opportunities through a variety of different travel opportunities. Girl will learn planning, fundraising and participate in the travel experiences at a local, national or international level.
•The Troop Pathway allows girls to do a series of programs with the same group of girls. This Pathway is similar to the current troop setup. This program lasts one year and the troop can get involved in a variety of activities like mentoring and community service while creating a strong bond with the girls in their troop.
•The Virtual Leadership Experience allows girls to participate in Girl Scouts no matter their geographic location through an online Girl Scout community. These experiences are led by a virtual volunteer and participation is through GSUSA’s web-based platform. This allows girls who have similar interests but who live far away the chance to meet monthly and talk about important issues and projects they wish to work on.
Each Pathway contains multiple opportunities and programs for all ages and skill levels. This allows Daisy (grades K-1) and Ambassador (grades 11-12) troops in the same Pathway to participate in different programs corresponding to their different ages and interests. Pathways were created with special consideration for older girls making sure the programs will remain relevant with girls’ changing interests and ambitions as they mature. Through the various Pathways, older girls can learn career development, leadership, advocacy and much more. Pathways ensure that Girl Scouts work on a project that is important to them and girls get as possible out of their leadership experience.
“We hope the What Did You Today? campaign repositions Girl Scouts with a message that is relevant to girls and the lives they lead today,” said Hilary Perry, Director of Communications and Advocacy. “To some degree, our brand had faded and our research revealed that while many girls and parents knew about us, they had a very limited view of us. While we are proud of our $3 million cookie business run by girls, we offer so much more than that, and this new look is designed to let people know about all the new and exciting things girls do every day as Girl Scouts and to make sure girls’ voices are heard. Our brand promise is that Girl Scouts gives every girl access to life-changing experiences that inspire her to do something big. We don’t have to look much further than our Gold Awardees to see evidence of that.”
To ensure that older girls’ voices are always heard and these changes are successful, GSNCA hired an older girl program manager, Jessica Breazeale. Her job is to listen to girls’ and volunteers’ voices and adjust the Pathways accordingly. Girls and volunteers are asked to fill out a survey about their experiences with different programs to improve the experience for future Girl Scouts. The addition of the older girl program manager guarantees positive, educational and fun activities for years to come.
With these changes, GSNCA believes that one girl can make a difference, and together girls can change the world. Through the new message and program structure, it is now easier than ever for girls to connect and find their niche in all GSNCA has to offer. Girl Scouts is not just about cookies or camp songs, it is about girls wanting to change the world one project at a time while developing into the leaders of tomorrow.
Known by the tagline of What Did You Do Today?, this campaign will play a large role in reaching the older girl audience. By asking the question, what did you do today, and sharing stories about what local Girl Scouts have done, GSNCA plans to continuously highlight that Girl Scouts are out in the community more than once a year selling cookies. They are traveling, building leadership skills and advocating for themselves and causes in which they have a passion. This new message will be shared through popular media allowing GSNCA to reintroduce themselves to girls, parents and volunteers.
“A revitalized and energized brand is absolutely essential for us and our future growth,” said Trish Coghlan, Chief Executive Officer of GSNCA. “About one out of every 16 girls within the 36 counties GSNCA serves participates in Girl Scouting and that’s a tremendous number when you think about it. But that also means that we have a great opportunity to grow even after almost 100 years. We have literally revamped our entire organization to appeal to that 94 percent of girls who aren’t benefiting from the Girl Scout leadership experience. We think we have the right message at the right time with our new brand.”
While the new brand will advertise the available opportunities, GSNCA will add additional ways girls can get involved with Girl Scouting. This fall, they will introduce more Pathways which will help girls find activities that will specifically interest them or their troop. Upon registering, a Girl Scout, or troop, will have broad categories - Pathways – from which to choose. There are six different Pathways: Camp, Events, Series, Travel, Troops and Virtual.
•The Camp Pathway involves participation in day and overnight camp experiences. It is primarily focused on environmental and outdoor education.
•The Events Pathway allows girls to participate in several onetime events. Girl Scouts get to choose which events they wish to attend and can participate in several within a year. Some examples of events are NASA’s space days where girls build rockets and local universities’ programs for teen girls.
•The Series Pathway is a series of multiple sessions relating to a specific theme or purpose. Series can range from a three-day leadership conference to meeting once a week for eight weeks to participate in the Change Your World Journey.
•The Travel Pathway offers girls leadership and cross-cultural opportunities through a variety of different travel opportunities. Girl will learn planning, fundraising and participate in the travel experiences at a local, national or international level.
•The Troop Pathway allows girls to do a series of programs with the same group of girls. This Pathway is similar to the current troop setup. This program lasts one year and the troop can get involved in a variety of activities like mentoring and community service while creating a strong bond with the girls in their troop.
•The Virtual Leadership Experience allows girls to participate in Girl Scouts no matter their geographic location through an online Girl Scout community. These experiences are led by a virtual volunteer and participation is through GSUSA’s web-based platform. This allows girls who have similar interests but who live far away the chance to meet monthly and talk about important issues and projects they wish to work on.
Each Pathway contains multiple opportunities and programs for all ages and skill levels. This allows Daisy (grades K-1) and Ambassador (grades 11-12) troops in the same Pathway to participate in different programs corresponding to their different ages and interests. Pathways were created with special consideration for older girls making sure the programs will remain relevant with girls’ changing interests and ambitions as they mature. Through the various Pathways, older girls can learn career development, leadership, advocacy and much more. Pathways ensure that Girl Scouts work on a project that is important to them and girls get as possible out of their leadership experience.
“We hope the What Did You Today? campaign repositions Girl Scouts with a message that is relevant to girls and the lives they lead today,” said Hilary Perry, Director of Communications and Advocacy. “To some degree, our brand had faded and our research revealed that while many girls and parents knew about us, they had a very limited view of us. While we are proud of our $3 million cookie business run by girls, we offer so much more than that, and this new look is designed to let people know about all the new and exciting things girls do every day as Girl Scouts and to make sure girls’ voices are heard. Our brand promise is that Girl Scouts gives every girl access to life-changing experiences that inspire her to do something big. We don’t have to look much further than our Gold Awardees to see evidence of that.”
To ensure that older girls’ voices are always heard and these changes are successful, GSNCA hired an older girl program manager, Jessica Breazeale. Her job is to listen to girls’ and volunteers’ voices and adjust the Pathways accordingly. Girls and volunteers are asked to fill out a survey about their experiences with different programs to improve the experience for future Girl Scouts. The addition of the older girl program manager guarantees positive, educational and fun activities for years to come.
With these changes, GSNCA believes that one girl can make a difference, and together girls can change the world. Through the new message and program structure, it is now easier than ever for girls to connect and find their niche in all GSNCA has to offer. Girl Scouts is not just about cookies or camp songs, it is about girls wanting to change the world one project at a time while developing into the leaders of tomorrow.