Girlguiding's Impact Report - Our girls are happier & more confident!
Anyone who knows me well knows I struggle to read reports, papers, minutes… in fact anything that doesn’t have at least one murder amongst its pages, but I have read Girlguiding’s Impact Report! I do spend a huge amount of my time supporting the organisation and, quite frankly, I ‘know’ we’re doing something really amazing. But knowing something and having the research that backs up that knowing are two very different things.
As Deputy Chief Guide, I do know how much work goes into making Girlguiding happen. I see it in the meetings, the strategy, the planning, the conversations with volunteers, the decisions about what comes next and the constant question of how we make sure girls remain at the heart of what we do… but ultimately, none of that is the point. I really believe the point is what happens to a girl because she’s a member of Girlguiding. This report gives us some pretty compelling evidence about why being a member matters.
The research shows that girls in Girlguiding (and we have 300,000 of them aged 4-18!) are 30% more confident and 17% happier than girls in the UK on average. It also shows the importance of friendships, social skills and the relationships girls build with the volunteers who support them.
Those numbers are fantastic, but what really struck me is that behind every statistic is a girl having an experience. She may be a girl who was nervous about going on her first night away and came home desperate to tell everyone about it. She could also be the girl who discovers she was actually quite good at something she had never tried before.
Girlguiding is a space for a girl to find her people. A space where she can get things wrong, make a mess of something, laugh about it and try again. It’s also a space where a girl can simply go each week and be herself.
I've been part of Girlguiding for a long time. I joined as a Brownie in the 80s and have been a member, leader and volunteer in various roles ever since. I have seen the organisation from lots of different angles, and I often wonder what ‘Brownie Me’ would think about the woman who now sits on boards helping to shape the future of our organisation – an organisation that supports hundreds of thousands of girls and young women, with around 80,000 volunteers making it happen.
Leadership & Volunteering
It seems the longer I'm involved in Girlguiding, the more convinced I’ve become that leadership isn't really about having all the answers. It's about creating the conditions for other people to thrive. That's what our volunteers do every week - they create the space, open the doors and organise the activity, make the hot chocolate, remember the birthdays, carry the kit, fill in the forms, calm the nerves, encourage the ridiculous ideas and occasionally wonder why they agreed to take 14 teenagers camping. They are the people who make the magic possible.
The impact report finds that girls who have strong relationships with their Girlguiding volunteers also have better outcomes around social skills and dealing with emotional difficulties. That feels important to me because it captures something that can be difficult to measure: the power of knowing someone believes in you.
We’re here to support young women with everything life throws at them, whether it’s from heartbreak to Hungry Hippos or mud pies to making a difference.
Our Social Value
The report also shines a light on Girlguiding’s social value – it estimates we create between £2,300 (for 7-11yr olds) and £9,900 per member, per year (for 11-18yr olds). This adds up to around £1 billion overall. Wow! An extraordinary number, don’t you think?
Perhaps, what I love most about the report is that it doesn't reduce Girlguiding to a number. We build confidence, but we're not in the confidence business. Our girls are happier, but we're not in the happiness business. It may be a surprise to many but we’re not really in the badge business either. Although if you saw our annual turnover you’d probably disagree with me… our members LOVE badges! We are in the business of giving girls opportunities to have adventures, make friends, try things, to fail safely. To lead, laugh and discover what they're capable of. Most importantly to work out who they are.
The Impact Report is evidence that we're doing something that matters. It is also a useful reminder that impact doesn't always look like a big campaign, a strategy document or a shiny new initiative. Sometimes it looks like a girl laughing with her friends on a Monday evening. Sometimes it looks like a volunteer turning up, week after week. Sometimes it looks like a girl saying, “I didn't think I could do that.” and then doing it anyway.
That, for me, is the real impact of Girlguiding and it's a rather wonderful thing to be part of… and that is why I am so proud to be part of the Chief Guide Team.
Read the Full Report
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