Growing (Good) Guiding Practical Steps for Making This Happen

Growing (Good) Guiding – practical steps for making this happen.

Growing Guiding, and making sure that it is Good Guiding, has to be delivered at local level. The Region itself cannot Grow Guiding. Only the Counties and Islands can do this. Each County and Island is different in the challenges it faces, and each must develop its own action plan to Grow Guiding in its area.

The challenge for the Region and each County/Island is to change the way we deliver Guiding. Guiding can only grow if we change the mind set that there is only way to deliver Guiding (ie, in units), and if we demolish the barriers we put up at local level which prevent girls and adults joining us.

Our aim is that every girl should be offered the chance to participate in the Guiding Programme as soon as they reach the minimum age for the relevant section. If this cannot be delivered in a Unit setting, then it should be offered in a different format.

To achieve this, the Region and the Counties/Islands will work together and undertake the following tasks:

The Region will:

Support and facilitate the development of action plans in each County/Island
Provide information on demographics, current membership, and other statistical information to support the development of the action plans, including Join Us lists
Develop resources including taster session packs, advice sheets, and templates
Develop the Growing Guiding space on the Region website to include hints and tips, and case studies
Support and deliver training aimed at changing attitudes to, and methods of, delivering Guiding
Develop quality assurance monitoring and reviewing of the Programme being offered at local level

Each County/Island will:

Appoint a Growing Guiding Coordinator
Work to demolish the barriers to Growing Guiding which exist in their area and ensure that every Guider takes responsibility for Growing Guiding
Identify the priorities for their area
Produce an action plan to show how they are going to Grow Good Guiding over the next three years
Provide the Region with a copy of the action plan, and six-monthly reports on progress
Actively explore new ways of delivering Guiding
Provide at least three taster sessions in their area for girls on the Waiting-to-Join list, and work to develop these sessions into new ways of delivering Guiding

Targets:

Counties/Islands to appoint a Coordinator
Region Coordinator to meet with the C/I coordinators early in 2013
Action plans to be produced
Pilot a review of the Guiding Programme in units
From September 2013, develop different ways of delivering Guiding, and different ways of training on the principles

The role of the County/Island Growing Guiding Coordinator:

This is not a PR/media/communication role. It is quite separate from the task of publicising Guiding. The coordinator will need to work with the County/Island Commissioner and her team to:

Identify priorities and produce an action plan for the next three years
Use the tools (eg. Join Us) to get information and use that information effectively to support the action plan
Identify and make contact with communities in their area
Identify the help and support needed from Region

The County/Island coordinators will meet regularly with the Region Coordinator to share information and ideas, and to update on progress.

The County/Island Coordinator needs to be someone who is:

Positive, forward-thinking and has a good understanding of Guiding
Able to work with the County/Island teams (including Adult Support)
Able to promote change
Able to enthuse and encourage
Willing to use new ways of delivering Guiding
Able to attend meetings with the Region Coordinator