Community Service Vs Take Action
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These are great examples of community service projects with a short term impact. Community service is a wonderful way to explore giving back to the community, but when Girl Scouts are earning Journeys and the Highest Awards it is time to look deeper to create Take Action Projects, which have longer lasting impact.
The Journeys and Highest Awards challenge Girl Scouts to use critical thinking skills to identify the root causes of community issues. Take Action Projects must address these root issues with long term solutions, helping the community through direct action, education and advocacy.
A good Take Action project can have community service elements, but if they are removed there will still be a project that offers a long term solution.
A good Take Action project can have community service elements, but if they are removed there will still be a project that offers a long term solution.
Think you understand?
Test your skills!
Have Take Action Project idea?
Give your Take Action project the test!
Ready to teach your troop how to spot the difference or take their projects to the next level?
Here are some tools to use at your meetings.
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| cs_vs_take_action_matching_cards_with_issue.pdf |
| cs_vs_take_action_matching_cards_with_issue.docx |
Build the skills to think beyond community service.
Start by having the Girl Scouts brainstorm a short list of ways they would like to help their community. You can use the community projects from the chart or think back to service they have already done.
Start with community service projects.
Then ask questions, such as:
How could we make what we do last longer ?
How could it have a bigger impact or reach more people ?
Who else could we get to help us ?
Who could we teach to do the same thing we did ?
SKILL OR LEADERSHIP COMPARISON
Ask the girls to make two charts.
Chart 1 ( Community Service ) List the skills they would need to volunteer at an event.
Chart 2 ( Take Action) List the skills they would need to plan an event and invite others to be the
volunteers under their direction.
The example below was created by Senior Girl Scouts (9th-10th grade) during a Girltopia Journey.
They used attending a beach cleanup (Community Service) VS organizing and running a monthly beach cleanup (Take Action). You could do this exercise with any of the examples in the charts from this page.
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INTERACTIVE ACTIVITY
Matching "game".
Have the girls write down the descriptions of Community Service & Take Action (CS & TA) on poster paper or a whiteboard. Put them side by side.
Suggested directions: Print out & cut up the "cards" of the chart below. Form even teams. Chose the number of examples you will use based on the size of your group. Each girl takes a project description & decides which side her project belongs in, the CS group or the TA group. (Hint for them - there will be the same number of girls in each group.). Once they figure out their correct group, have them find the one that "matches" theirs. Explain that it won't "match", but that the girls in the CS group should find the person in the TA group who makes their project bigger or uses more leadership and problem solving. Sometimes the TA project is a different way to approach the same topic.
The list contains letters if you want to make it easier for the girls to find their "partner". If they want more of a challenge, cut off the letters.
Google Jamboard sorting game
To test their CS VS TA project spotting skills, build a Jamboard using their own project ideas or the ones we provide for the matching game. Give the girls a couple of minutes to sort them. When everyone is done, ask the girls to look at the Jamboard to see if the projects are on the correct side, Have the girls explain their reasoning for the placement of the project idea
To test their CS VS TA project spotting skills, build a Jamboard using their own project ideas or the ones we provide for the matching game. Give the girls a couple of minutes to sort them. When everyone is done, ask the girls to look at the Jamboard to see if the projects are on the correct side, Have the girls explain their reasoning for the placement of the project idea
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