Making the world a better place

Girl Scout Mission

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

The final facet of the mission statement is to make the world a better place. Since it's inception, Girl Scouting has challenged girls to provide service to their community. The current journey materials and Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards all focus on meeting this part of the mission statement.

What to do?
Perhaps the hardest part of making the world a better place is deciding where to start. Chances are your girls have all sorts of ideas and the trick will be whittling the list down into something manageable and age appropriate. It's a good idea to keep the focus local, especially with young scouts. Global concerns often get more media attention and are certainly important, but children need to know that many injustices happen right in their own neighborhood and they can be a part of fixing that. Here is a nice internet resource with some guidelines for making the world better close to home and globally.

Because it's the right thing to do
While Girl Scout program materials offer numerous opportunities for service, it's also important that girls understand that the goal of service is to serve, not to earn recognition. This means ensuring that the troop participate in some service projects without any external motivating reward. Extrinsic motivation can have negative effects. Particularly, when people are motivated by rewards for their behaviors it can have the unintended effect of (1) reducing their motivation to participate in the activity without the reward and (2) reducing their intrinsic enjoyment of the activity. Service can be extremely rewarding on it's own. Research has shown that people who volunteer have greater levels of life satisfaction than those who don't.

One person makes a difference
When I was a child our family constantly checked one book out of the library. I read this book over and over. To this day, I still think of that book when considering my actions and how they affect the world. The book is If Everybody Did by Jo Ann Stover. I was overjoyed a number of years ago to find it available on Amazon. It's great for young scouts, and I've even read it to my Senior Troop.
Through illustrations of common everyday childhood behavior, the book explores the effect that one person's actions could have if everyone behaved in the same way. While it is more of a cautionary tale about behaving properly, the lesson can easily be related to making the world a better place. With a world population of 7.3 billion, just imagine the impact if everybody planted a tree, or if everybody threw their trash on the ground.

Do It!
Make sure that service is an integral part of your troop's program. Whether your girls choose to make it a central purpose of the troop or whether you have some other focus, service projects should be incorporated into whatever you do. This can be as simple as cleaning the places you visit or donating some troop proceeds to a worthy cause. Just remind the girls during every activity to find a quick way to provide some service and you'll have them on the right track.

How does your troop make the world a better place? Share your experiences in the comments.

Smitty

References:
Cherry, Kendra. "Differences Between Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation." About.com, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2015. <http://psychology.about.com/od/motivation/f/difference-between-extrinsic-and-intrinsic-motivation.htm>.
Meier, Stephan, and Alois Stutzer. "Is Volunteering Rewarding in Itself?" Economica 0.0 (2007): 39-59. Web. <http://ftp.iza.org/dp1045.pdf>.
"How to Make the World a Better Place." WikiHow. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2015. <http://www.wikihow.com/Make-the-World-a-Better-Place>.