Outdoor Program

New Blog. First Post. I was planning to start this off with a different series of topics, but on the heels of the Convention and all of the press about Outdoor Program, I've decided to throw my hat into that ring. So what does Smitty think about the importance of Outdoor Program in Girl Scouting?

Girl Scouting's primary goal is to grow girls into responsible, mature adults who are ready to tackle the world with their leadership skills. Accomplishing this requires at least two significant factors:

1. Engaging girls with the program - "If we build it, they will come."
   Girls know when they're having fun and when they're not. Girl Scouting is an optional activity in their lives. It better be something they want to do or we're going to lose them.
2. Exposing them to new challenges
   You don't build leadership by just talking about it or doing what you already know. Girls need to be stretched in ways that challenge them in order to grow. (Lots more about this in future posts).

Outdoor Program is probably the number one thing we can do that easily meets both of these requirements. In their report More Than S'mores: Successes and Surprises in Girl Scouts' Outdoor Experiences, the Girl Scout Research Institute reports that girls have extremely high enjoyment levels of the outdoor activities they participate in. Furthermore, girls who participate less frequently in outdoor program enjoy it even more. It seems like a no-brainer that increasing outdoor programming could correspond with increased enjoyment of Girl Scouting and potentially higher membership levels.

Many girls get little outdoor experience outside of Girl Scouting. This was somewhat true for me growing up. My parents actually liked to hike occasionally, but I only camped through Girl Scouting. Camping, hiking, outdoor cooking - these are the types of activities that build skills in a fun way. It's not school style book learning. When you take girls outside they get out of their comfort zone and have to learn new skills, face their fears, and work together. These are the experiences that build leadership.

The report recommends that Girl Scouts get outdoors at least once a month. We all know that program materials have a huge impact on what leaders and girls choose to do at meetings and other activities. Unless the program materials have a large variety of outdoor experiences built into them, where is this once a month outdoor activity going to come from?

Based on how outdoor program so integrally meets the needs and goals of Girl Scouting, I think it should be a significant part of what girls get from their scouting experience and we need much more of it in official Girl Scout program materials.

Do I support an Outdoor Journey? I suppose if there must be Journeys, then there absolutely should be Outdoor Journeys. But I'm not really a big fan of the Journey system and would prefer a step backward to a more traditional badge based program model.

Lastly, I do want to point out that despite my strong support for outdoor programming, I stop short of the position that Girl Scouting = Outdoor Skills. There are so many great experiences for girls that build leadership potential and we need to use every tool at our disposal to keep Girl Scouting engaging and challenging, whether that's a camping trip or a night at the opera.

Smitty