Root Issues - Make the connection

“People only see what they

are prepared to see.”

–   Ralph Waldo Emerson

(A shout-out to my friend, Rick Ruiz, who sends me a quote a day, like the one above.  They truly have been inspirational as I write the Gold Award Blog!)

We’re asking our girls to really get outside their comfort zone as they pursue the Gold Award.  I’ve heard from several, that it’s hard to get beyond the service project mentality of collecting things, since it’s something they’ve been doing since Daisies!  The girls are usually comfortable making the asks, creating collection boxes, picking up donations, visiting the non-profit and putting on a party.  A great service project! 

But where they are often less comfortable, is striking out in a new direction to make the project so much more!  And we, as advisors, really need to help give them the opportunity to see what is not familiar.  To potentially look at something mundane and open their minds to other possibilities.

I think that’s what Emerson was talking about:  how to look at something new, something uncomfortable, and not just compartmentalize it in a familiar way.  Rather, be surprised!  See the new idea or need, and take the next, perhaps unfamiliar and difficult, next steps to investigate it. 

This could be something as routine as seeing a homeless person panhandling on the street corner.  We’re prepared to see that.  But what aren’t we prepared to see?  The quality of his/her clothes?  The child sleeping in the back pack next to him?  The 3-legged dog?  The youngish non-graying hair with the heavily lined and browned face?  The multi generational family all panhandling together?

What other root issues could be addressed here?  Go beyond joblessness to the myriad of root causes at play here.  Help the girl see what she is not prepared to see.

Learning - a life skill

“Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.”

Tony Buzan, author and educational consultant

 I like that quote this morning!  Learning how to learn is certainly a skill to be developed early, so that we can use it our whole lives.  And as we get older, we take trainings that have us identify how we learn best, and how we can reinforce new information to replace the old.  (And we commiserate together about how easy it used to be!!)

But for our Gold girls, they are still learning how to learn.  They’re trying to figure out how to remember information for a math test on Tuesday, how to put together a science fair project and how to strategize to improve their soccer games.  While one goal is to pass a test, another is to figure out how to make the data stick, then write about it in a coherent way, and how to take the information, synthesize it and come out with a well-reasoned analysis. 

As part of our GSLE program, we are helping these girls to do just that!  We are asking the girls to identify an issue. It could be one that they already know about, or it could be one that they find as they investigate their community.  As advisors, we need to help guide them in this process and engage their critical thinking as they LEARN about an issue and the pieces that go with it. 

As we know, and the girls will find out, no one issue stands alone!  The root issue to address may be homeless kids on the street, but investigation and community mapping will identify other issues: lack of education and healthcare, mental illness, local economic situation, lowered expectations, etc.  The Gold girls must take all this info and LEARN how they can address the issue, create a plan and take action.

Again, this is more than a collection project, though providing toiletries, clothes and blankets could be a part, this is a TAKE ACTION project that needs to be more.  As advisors, we need to guide the girls to reach higher and Take Action now.

They also need to learn how their efforts can move on into the future.  How what they did can be sustained by others, upon completion.  And they need to take what they’ve done and learned to address the more global perspective. 

We’re asking our girls to put their passion into a project that makes the world a better place. What a great thing to learn!

Gold Award Project defined

From the GSUSA Blog: “Jacqueline is recycling wheelchairs, walkers, canes and crutches which will be donated to United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County, St. Anne’s Church and Met Council of The Bronx. Her goal is to help alleviate the burden of purchasing these items for people in need. She was inspired by her mother who was forced to use a walker when she broke her ankle. Jacqueline was 11 at the time and wondered how people who didn’t have insurance could have access to this equipment.”

From reading that paragraph, I’d say it was a very nice collection/service project, but hardly a Gold Award Project!  But as we all know, a newspaper doesn’t necessarily get all the details into its article, so I have to hope that Jacqueline really DID have a fully thought out Gold Award Project.

Watching her Mom use a walker definitely made an impression on Jacqueline.  But what root issue did just collecting wheel chairs address?  I’m hoping that her advisor challenged her to investigate the current health care system to figure out what agencies exist to provide those items to those in need. Using the community mapping tool would have given her great insight into her own community.  And wouldn’t it have been great if she identified part of her issue as helping the underserved by connecting them to agencies.  Or created an outreach with UCP or other agencies to get the word out into the community that this resource is available.

And how could she have used her leadership, beyond asking for donations?  How could she educate others?  Create a sustainable plan to ensure that donations would keep coming in?  Beyond helping the few people with her donations, how could she make a lasting difference in her community?  What would challenge her to think bigger and better?  To go beyond her comfort zone, and engage more with others in a leadership capacity?

I hope that her advisor/troop leader asked these questions, and really made Jacqueline think about what she was doing.  I truly hope that the Gold Award Committee who interviewed her and approved her Gold Award Project made sure that these pieces were included in her proposal.

And I hope Jacqueline celebrated the completion of her very successful project!