Today’s middle school-aged girls are learning, growing, and achieving in a world that changes fast. With each passing year, middle school girls are faced with a new set of realities, challenges, joys, and triumphs that previous generations may have never encountered.
To help our Cadettes transition into middle school with the exuberance of a Brownie and the cool calm of a Senior, we’re launching The Cadette Welcome Project later this year with support from our friends at the New York Life Foundation. This interactive event experience and guide will be useful for both Girl Scouts and their caregivers, and volunteers.
Here’s all that you need to know about The Cadette Welcome Project:
What is The Cadette Welcome Project?
The Cadette Welcome Project is a council-led series of interactive event experiences designed with middle school girls and their caregivers in mind. These events will help girls prepare for the physical, emotional, and academic changes coming their way in middle school and introduce them to the amazing benefits of leadership, friendship, and belonging that come with being a Girl Scout Cadette.
Caregivers and volunteers who attend the events will also benefit by becoming better prepared to support their girls as they transition into middle school.
To effectively host these events, Girl Scout councils will have access to a comprehensive playbook that provides research-based ideas on how to engage middle school girls and engage each council’s unique community. The initial councils piloting the Cadette Welcome Project include Girl Scouts of Nassau County, Girl Scouts of Colorado, and Girl Scouts of Northern California.
When can councils access the playbook?
The playbook is scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2022 across all 111 Girl Scouts councils.
What are some examples of topics that might be discussed at these events?
For girls, some of the sessions may cover topics like:
- Inclusion and unconscious bias
- Bullying and cyber-bullying
- Discovering their personal passions
- Leadership skills
- Academic success
- Self-confidence
- Middle school transitions
- Communication skills
- Healthy relationships
- Outdoors & High Adventure
- Navigating adolescent transitions
- Strengthening your relationship with your girl
- Understanding developmental changes in girls during middle school
- Setting your girl up for financial success and the future
- General volunteer skills training
- Transitioning from working with elementary school girls to middle school girls
Whether they are a Girl Scout or not, girls who attend Cadette Welcome Project events will have a true “Girl Scout Leadership Experience” and walk away with a stronger sense of self, more positive values, an appreciation for challenge, an understanding of healthy relationships, and a desire to help solve community problems.
The New Cadette Welcome Project is developed in partnership with the New York Life Foundation.
The New York Life Foundation’s educational enhancement program area focuses on middle school youth and provides support to afterschool and summer learning programs that help middle school students make a successful transition to high school, both academically and socially.