Inquiry in the Community curriculum and resources can be leveraged to enhance your council's volunteer learning options.
Many councils have a disconnect between their program quality goals and practice. Volunteers implementing the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) is at the heart of high-quality programming, but many don't know how. The Inquiry in the Community curriculum helps all volunteers - new and experienced - develop a better understanding of the GSLE. Specifically, our workshops help volunteers develop a common language around the three Girl Scout processes and how to implement them more effectively with girls.
Experienced volunteers appreciate that the workshops create a shared language around girl leadership, whether in a group of facilitators/trainers, service unit team members, or longtime troop leaders. By having a shared language, they can celebrate when they see "girl led" happening, and support each other when it's not. This shared language describing "girl led" also allows staff to easily identify when volunteers are truly supporting girl leadership, and to acknowledge those volunteers appropriately.
First-and second-year volunteers enjoy learning what is expected of them. When they are exposed to Inquiry in the Community workshops and resources early on, they quickly develop the skills and understanding needed to create quality experiences for girls. In particular, councils have used our curriculum and tools to make abstract program concepts such as the GSLE concrete and implementable for their volunteers.
"It's put together so nicely and in such a non-threatening way for those volunteers who have been around for a while, and in such a clear way for brand new leaders, that it makes the whole delivery of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience far easier for all volunteers to understand, and for staff. It just lays it out so nicely." - Girl Scout Council Staff Member