I hope you are looking forward to the spring and the lighter evenings. I do love spring. There’s something about a bright sunny morning (usually when the Formula 1 season is starting) that just makes me smile.
This month, our region team will be sharing more information about the recruitment campaign starting on the 8 May with a sponsored abseil event day – I am slightly nervous about abseiling down the Forum in Norwich, but it’s a new adventure and something I’ve never done before. I can’t wait for Brownies 2023 to take place, although I can’t decide where to take my own Brownie unit! I do hope to be able to attend some of the events so come along and maybe meet a member of my team or me.
I am delighted that my team was announced in March and what a team it is! Claire Course takes on the role of deputy chief commissioner, and Chris Skinner and Charlotte Bennett as assistant chief commissioners. We are all really excited to be able to lead Anglia over the next five years. By following this link, you can watch a short video of Chris and her Brownies in a radio interview – very inspirational. Over the coming months, there will be a series of interviews with Claire, Chris, and Charlotte featured in Signpost, Girlguiding Anglia’s newsletter. Please tune in to find out more about them, the sections they volunteer with and a bit about them outside of Girlguiding.
I was recently honoured to present a Buckinghamshire county good service certificate to Elaine Thorogood. Until recently, Elaine ran a Rainbow and a Brownie unit in Ivinghoe and Pistone. After nearly 25 years, Elaine has decided to retire from her units and support Girlguiding Buckinghamshire. Elaine truly deserved her award, and I was delighted to be able to present it to her on behalf of Sheila Beales, Buckinghamshire county commissioner.
From one inspirational lady to another – Andrea Oughton. Andrea has now stepped down as deputy chief commissioner. I’m lucky enough to have known Andrea for nearly five years, having first met her just after she started her role as deputy when she visited a county Brownie camp I had organised. Andrea has been extremely supportive of me over the last 5 years and even more so in the last couple of months, continuing as deputy chief for an extra month whilst my team and I settled into our new roles. Thank you, Andrea.
As you read this, you may well be getting ready to celebrate Easter with family and friends. I will be hiding Easter eggs for my children who are in their twenties, always makes me smile watching them trying to find the eggs. Whatever you have planned, I hope you are able to take some time for yourselves and relax whilst eating far too much chocolate!
Have fun and enjoy new adventures along the way.
Karen
In 2022 members said they would like to see all the training courses offered by Anglia, not just those they were eligible for. This would show the support available for other roles, particularly if a member was thinking of taking on a role such as a commissioner or an advisor.
It took some months, but we set about redesigning the part of our website that hosted our training sessions. Our volunteer trainers have also been busy responding to your feedback and designing and running sessions to meet the wide-ranging needs of members across Anglia region. You can see the next stage of our work on the events tab of the Anglia website.
At the same time, they have also been busy learning how to run sessions through the learning platform. The Anglia staff and volunteer teams are working with the national team to support all countries and regions to move training bookings to the 1 platform. Long term this should make it far easier for all volunteers to find the training they need as plans are currently being developed to move county training sessions onto the platform as well.
Until then if you are looking for a local face-to-face training session such as First Aid check out your local county page or visit the region and county calendar page.
Last month we started adding region events as well as training to the webpage and you can now find the Brownies Go Explore information all in one place.
We will continue to develop the page so if there are other things you would like to see please let us know.
With the changing of the clocks lighter evenings are now here and summer camps and sleepovers are being planned. This month we have gathered some of our favourite outdoor challenges to inspire you for light evenings, camps, or anytime you want to celebrate the great outdoors.
Updated in 2021 the Anglia Outdoor Challenge is still as popular as ever. With an easy-to-view format and challenges that can be picked by your unit and tailored as you need, it can last as long or as short as you like.
For something more in-depth try the feel-good-in-nature challenge written by a volunteer project group in partnership with the RSPB. Find the Anglia challenges and partnerships in the resources section.
Learn orienteering. British Orienteering has clubs all over the UK that can help you get started with orienteering. Want to have a go yourself? The British Orienteering website has lots of guides and activities to learn the basics as well as introductory videos.
If you have an outdoor site with your meeting place you can apply to them to set up a mapped course or visit one of their many permanent courses for free.
Want to find a whole library of challenge badges and support units to raise funds? Search for and join the Facebook group ‘Girlguiding Unofficial Challenge Badges For Leaders’. All the badges listed are updated annually and are easy to find in the files section. One of our units loved the look of the Wildlife Challenge and will be completing it during camp this spring.
Feeling creative? Girlguiding Scotland has an out-and-about challenge that can be as simple or complex as you and your unit would like. You can even use it as a takeaway challenge for unit members over the holidays.
Whatever you do we’d love to hear about and see your activities so please share with us and tag us on social media. And if you have an amazing idea for a challenge or partnership why not get in touch?
Return to the member support page
Visit last month’s blog on International Women’s Day
Hautbois Activity Centre, a part of Girlguiding Anglia, has been awarded funding for youth organisations to visit the centre during the Easter holidays 2023. All costs covered including a travel bursary can be covered.
This opportunity is funded as part of UK Youth’s campaign to raise awareness of the devastating impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on youth organisations and young people.
They have funding for a limited number of spaces for:
1) activity days including 4 outdoor activities and lunch.
2) A 2-night full board residential stay including 8 activities.
Eligibility criteria
Full funding is available for young people who are:
- carers
- young parents
- in rural isolation
- experiencing mental health challenges
- have behavioural, emotional and social difficulties
- black, Asian, minority ethnic or traveller communities
- at risk of being not in education, employment or training
- disabled
- within the care system
- experiencing or at risk of the criminal justice system
- experiencing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- experiencing homelessness
- LGBTQI+
- from low-income families
- refugee or asylum seekers
In order to qualify for funded places you will be asked to provide monitoring and evaluation information for the UK Youth funders.
This information will cover:
- A leaders survey for each organisation which outlines demographic data on who the bursaries have reached and feedback from individual group leaders regarding their assessment of the benefits of the programme to their young people
- A young people’s survey which includes personal reflections on the programme
We have also been asked for three images of the delivery in action. Please note all images submitted may be used by UK Youth to support the promotion and evaluation of the programme, including submission in our final evaluation report, so we will be asking for relevant consent from at least some of the young people.
Apply or find out more
If you think this criterion applies to your unit or group and are happy to agree to the reporting requirements please contact the Hautbois Activity Centre team to discuss your booking further.
