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Challenge and Change
Girls challenged to change their communities
Nine girls from the Western Slope and six girls from Eastern Colorado came away from a five-day retreat with the power and a plan to change their world. In early June, these teen Girl Scouts participated in the first Challenge and Change retreat, a new leadership program that teaches girls to be social entrepreneurs. By the end of the week in Leadville, the girls had identified a problem in their community and planned a solution to address it.
Challenge and Change: Challenge Yourself, Change the World, is a new leadership development program from Girl Scouts of the USA. It is being piloted with teen girls in 22 rural communities across the country and is a program of Girl Scouts in Rural Communities funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Challenge and Change teaches girls skills to identify community problems, recognize and build on local assets and design a sustainable solution and action plan. After the retreat, girls return home and recruit a community action team, including an adult who serves as their community champion, to turn their good idea into a sustainable, long-term project.
In Colorado, the girls developed nine projects to make a difference in their communities.
The projects are:
- Grow and Go - A Teen Resource Center
- C.O.P. - Cost of Parenthood, an awareness program in which the girl is going to pretend to be pregnant and her experiences will be videotaped to create a documentary about the need to wait for that responsibility.
- PB&J, Crust Included - Recreation and Day Care Center run by teens
- M.A.S.C. - More Active Senior Citizens, a program to address the needs of the elderly in nursing homes for activities and transportation to these activities
- Sports Necessities - Collects and distributes gently used sports equipment to those in need
- Golden Minds - A teen group that meets with seniors to address needs and act as advocates on their behalf
- Include Me - A disability awareness program that includes a video and construction of handicap ramps at sports venues
- Cliff Dwellers Youth Theatre Troupe - A children's theater group
- Exploration Park - The construction of a community park in a community that has none.
The communities will see a great benefit as these girls develop leadership skills and learn to become successful social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship is a growing global approach to solving social problems by applying business strategies that ensure long-term results.
Stay tuned as we learn more about how the projects are progressing and for more information about Challenge and Change 2009 next summer.