We’re officially at the end of year 1 of the project but it will take a few more weeks to finish counting up all the new spaces we’ve created for Guides and Rangers. In the last month though, we’ve opened another new unit. Welcome to 1st Chiswell Green Guides, we hope you have had a great first half-term. They are our 10th new Guide or Ranger unit in the project. We’re aiming for 14 new units in total.
In last month’s blog I wrote about the £6000 financial support for units with subscription costs. In March, we were able to offer nearly £4000 in Girlguiding vouchers to support units that have increased their capacity. These have been spent on a whole range of things from uniform for new young leaders and unit helpers to promise badges and handbooks for new Guides. More than 1 unit are buying this term’s badges with their vouchers. They will then spend the money they would have spent on badges on items from their wish list to support their growing unit.
Spring is a time of change and new growth and that is definitely true for guiding as well as nature. I enjoyed reading Girlguiding’s new support page for parents and carers. It tells adults everything they need to know about their child’s Girlguiding experience. From where to go for support to what our programme looks like and how parents and carers can support the unit and their child get the most out of their time with us.
Our membership experience survey is also a chance for us to reflect and grow. We heard over 750 responses between December 2023 and February 2024. Do head over to our blog where we share what we’ve heard from our members and what we’ve done in response. This will always be the place to see the small ways that Girlguiding Anglia serves you, our amazing volunteers.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog and would like to read more about the project head to our first blog.
Last month’s blog, next month’s blog.
Return to the member support page
We’re coming to the end of the first year of our project made possible by the Uniformed Youth Fund. In this blog I’m looking back to what we’ve achieved in that time. I’m also looking forward to what’s to come in year 2 as we welcome more 10-18 year olds and help them learn that girls can do anything.
In February, I shared the great news that we have met our target to increase the number of spaces we have available to girls in existing units. We’ve smashed that target by creating 811 new spaces. This month, I can share that we have met our target to welcome 65 new volunteers in project areas – in fact, we have welcomed 75! Our final target to achieve is to open 14 new Guide or Ranger units and we’re at 9 so far. Read this interview with newly opened 1st Thedwastre Guides, it’s still one of my highlights of last year.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve agreed financial support for 29 different units that have been part of the project. That’s a total of over £6,000 granted to support them this coming term. It’s been a busy month so I’m grateful for the extra day with the leap day!
Here’s what is coming in year 2 of the project:
March 2024 onwards – we’ll open 5 more Guide or Ranger units.
We’ll continue with our volunteer recruitment campaign by supporting county shows in the summer and freshers fairs in the autumn. I’ll support local divisions with their recruitment activities and we’ll provide training to help volunteers welcoming new recruits. Take a look at our 4 steps to recruitment success training for an example. (Bookings for the next training, close on 5 March.)
Summer term – we’ll launch a new unit support pack
Spring term 2025 – we’ll offer financial support for eligible units for subscription fees.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog and would like to read more about the project head to our first blog.
Last month’s blog, next month’s blog.
Return to the member support page
January was a very busy month for the Uniformed Youth Fund project. We started the year with lots of data crunching and preparing reports for our funders. We’re really pleased to share that we’ve met one of our targets – to increase capacity in existing units by 342 spaces. Over 90 units have reviewed and updated their capacity on GO and then gone on to welcome new Guides or Rangers. We’ve created 811 new spaces so smashed our target. Of those spaces, we’ve welcomed 403 new girls so that’s hundreds of extra girls learning that they can do anything.
If you were one of those units, do get in touch. We’d love to hear what you did to prepare for new girls and share your success on next month’s blog.
Over the next month or two, we’ll be financially supporting those units that are eligible with payments towards Girlguiding’s subscription payment. If your unit is eligible, I’ll be in touch with you directly. This important payment helps fund running costs at all levels of Girlguiding – from developments to digital tools to risk management and safeguarding. If your unit is worried about paying subscriptions, please read the Girlguiding website for support on paying subscriptions. It includes help with how to speak to parents about this cost. There are many grants to apply for and you can speak to your commissioner about your concerns. The earlier you ask for help, the better.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog and would like to read more about the project head to our first blog or December’s edition about our new Guide unit in Thedwastre, Suffolk.
Last month’s blog, next month’s blog.
Return to the member support page
1st Thedwastre Guides opened on 11 September 2023 with a meeting night held outside. The unit has been financially supported by our new unit grant and forms part of our Uniformed Youth Fund project. I caught up with their leaders, Claire and Tracy and commissioner, Viv to see what it’s like to open a new unit and what their highlights have been.
Viv, has there been a Guide unit in the area before? What made you think it would be a good idea to open one and how did you go about finding a leadership team?
Before opening Thedwastre Guides, there was 2 thriving units in the district that were full or nearly full. Looking at the numbers of Brownies in the district made me realise that the existing units would be full and there would be no places locally for Brownies to go once they got to 10. Knowing the amazing and varied opportunities that guiding gives girls, I was keen to find a way to increase capacity for Guides in the district. We had also had a district holiday in the May and all the Brownies units had attended. They saw the Guides camping and cooking their food on a fire and so we had a lot of very enthusiastic girls to accommodate!
Finding a leadership team fell into place naturally – I had a new leader join the district that had previously had a lot of experience with Guides and another leader who is a Snowy Owl at one of the Brownie units and was also keen to increase Guide spaces so it naturally worked and the two leaders made the leadership team for the new unit.
I heard that everything has fallen into place nicely but I’m sure there was a lot of activity and sensible decision making in the background to make this happen. Can you let us in on your secrets please?
Ha ha I’m not sure I have any secrets! What I do have however is relentless enthusiasm, a brilliant district and lots of Curly Wurlys! In all seriousness there genuinely aren’t any secrets – it started off as a mathematical exercise looking at the numbers of Brownies in our area that would be reaching 10 over the next year or two and then looking at how we could provide Guide spaces for them to go to. I soon realised that the answer would be opening a new unit and so from there it was a case of lots of conversations to find the right venue and right team to lead it.
Claire and Tracey – how did it feel on that first night and what did you get up to?
We were both very excited. We already knew all the girls because they had all be in our Brownie unit. Instead of a first meeting in our usual meeting place, we decided to open with a bang so arranged with Elmswell Guides to have a joint meeting for a campfire (what better way to open a new unit than with a few verses of ‘This Little Guiding Light of Mine’ and a s’more). However, because the weather has been exceedingly hot, we decided it was not a good idea go light a fire so we just played a variety of wide games with them, sang songs, taught the girls taps and how to march into a horseshoe – something which both units have enjoyed having a go at!
What have been your highlights so far?
There are too many to mention really. The girls are a great bunch, albeit very excitable at times. On the first week in our meeting place they decided whether they wanted neckers and what colour, which patrol names they wanted, who was going to be patrol leaders and what they were going to call us. The following week they started to plan their promise ceremony party, assigning each other different roles and came up with a list of Unit Guidelines. Claire’s dad made us some patrol boxes so the girls painted them with the help of Tracey’s Cricut machine making stencils for. This week we made pencil cases with them using our sewing machines, which they loved.
What would you say to other areas that are thinking of opening a new unit?
Go for it! It is not as difficult as you may think. We only finally decided at the beginning of the summer holidays that we were definitely going to open and were ready to go come September when they went back to school. We borrowed resources from another unit in our district to plan the terms activities and applied for grants to help with funding. I think it helped that we were both experienced leaders, both having run Guide units before but it is not difficult, especially if you get support from other unit leaders in your district as well as your local district or county commissioner. We were also lucky because we are both already involved with our local Brownie Unit so had access to those where were leaving at the end of the previous term, and with word of mouth from them to their friends who had already left our unit and moved onto Guides we had another three transfer to us from another unit in our district whose waiting list was already quite large. We started with 7 girls and have at least another 3 starting after Christmas.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today.
It’s so easy to think that success is the number of badges our young members earn or how big our unit is or how much fundraising we do. Actually, success is a whole range of girl-led activities – from s’mores to sewing, from making a horse shoe to making a patrol box! Thank you for all that you are doing for the girls in your unit, we really appreciate all the time that you give and the skills that you share.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog and would like to read more about the project that funded 1st Thedwastre Guides, do read our first blog or November’s edition.
