Wilderness Inquiry Helps
Scouts to be More Inclusive
Girl Scouts and Wilderness Inquiry partner
to bring more opportunties
by Dawn Short
It seems like a perfect match.
Between the Girl Scout’s goal to reach every girl everywhere
and Wilderness Inquiry’s
(WI) goal to bring the great outdoors to everyone, opportunities for partnership
abound.
Among the collaborations
between these two groups, the most prominent is Beyond Special
Populations, which focuses on “helping to
increase and improve the inclusion and integration of girls who bring
a wide range of abilities and backgrounds to Girl Scouting activities,” said
Brian Steines, associate program director with WI. That includes
all girls, of all cultures and economic backgrounds, as well as all
physical, cognitive and mental abilities.
Since 2005, the Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley (GSC) and
WI have served hundreds of girls, Girl Scout leaders, staff and volunteers
through workshops, trainings, and multi-day trips throughout Minnesota
and the U.S.
Wanda Rice, a Girl Scout
volunteer who recently attended the Attention All Abilities training
seminar, said that it “taught us how
to make all we do in Girl Scouting fully accessible to all girls.” She
plans to share her newly obtained knowledge with her troop. Attention
All Abilities provides hands-on, interactive training that gives
volunteers the knowledge, skills, activities and tools to help girls
of all abilities.
WI also provides training through the Discovery Seminar series,
which gives volunteers and the council staff opportunities to learn
how to adapt activities to include all girls, understand different
types of disabilities, and help others increase their comfort level.
“For the remainder of
2007, WI hopes to expand these trainings to other councils around
the U.S. while working with the Girl Scout Council of the St. Croix
Valley to improve the overall model and its effectiveness,” said
Steines.
WI has also developed a Girl
Scout page on their Web site to educate groups about specific disabilities
and supply regional and national information resources.
With the foundation
and training for adults in place, the next step was to incorporate
the girls. In summer of 2006, WI and Girl Scouts took girls from
GSC’s special initiatives groups—Beta
Gamma Girl Scouts (BGGS), Hmong Women’s Circle (HWC), and Latina
Unidas—canoeing and camping on the Namekagon River in Wisconsin.
For a majority of the girls, it was their first camping experience.
“The
Namekagon River trip was the best adventure ever,” said
a Latinas Unidas Girl Scout. “I experienced new things, got to
meet new people, and learned about new cultures. The trip was really
fun because we played games, cooked our own food, [learned how to]
steer the canoe, [made new] friends and, most importantly, had fun.”
Every girl in Girl Scouts
wants to participate, to achieve her best, and to have fun. Wilderness
Inquiry helps open doors to make that happen for all girls. Through
GSC’s relationship with WI, more
girls will be able experience the great outdoors and everything that
Girl Scouts has to offer. ![]()
Dawn M. Short is Communications Specialist for the Girl Scout Council
of St. Croix Valley.
