GSOFCT Silver Award Project Idea Approval Form

This form should be completed by Girl Scout Cadettes who are ready to begin their Silver Award. This form should be completed after finishing their prerequisite journey, but before they begin to implement their project. Each Cadette should complete their own form even when working with a group on the project.

Before beginning, you will need to know the following information:

• Your contact information
• Your troop leader contact info (if in a troop)
• Which prerequisites you completed
• Who will be involved with your project
• How you will show leadership
• The issue your project will address
• The root cause of this issue
• How you will solve the root cause (aka what is your project)
• How you will measure your project
• How you will sustain your project
• How you will fund your project

Once you are prepared with this information, hit "next" to continue.

If at anytime you would like to save your information to return later, select the "save" button and follow the instructions to save your information to return to later.  Please note, if you do not wish to create an account, simply select "skip account creation" at the bottom.

As a reminder:

To qualify for the Silver Award, Girl Scout Cadettes should:

• Be a registered member of GSOFCT
• Be in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade
• Complete one Cadette Journey with the accompanying Take Action Project prior to starting the Silver Award
• Build a team! (Up to 4 Cadettes can work together on this project, but be sure to also include community members as well)
• Investigate the community for issues
• Find the root cause of the issue
• Create a plan to tackle the root cause. 
• Ensure the project will be sustained after you are done with it. This means more than an a physical or digital item existing forever, as sustainability means having a plan for how your solution will continue to have an impact on the root cause. 
• Measure your impact
• Spend 50 hours working on the project. Each Girl Scout working on the project should have 50 individual hours.
• Allow each Girl Scout to have a leadership role in the project
• Share what you have accomplished with others.
• Be completed by September 30th of the year you finish 8th grade and start 9th grade.
  
  

The following are NOT allowed:

• Projects that focus solely on collecting, beautifying, decorating, donating, and/or cleaning as these are service projects. These aspects can be part of a larger project, but cannot be the  only part of the project. 
• Projects that focus solely on implementing an already existing solution (i.e. Little Libraries, Buddy Benches, Badge Workshops) are not Highest Award projects. These aspects can be part of a larger, unique solution, but cannot be the  only  part of the project.
• Projects that raise money for another organization. Per GSOFCT and GSUSA policy, Girl Scouts may not raise money for another organization and any money raised for the purpose of funding your project may not be directly donated to another organization.
• Projects planned and organized by adults that girls only implement. Remember: adults should guide girls through the process and ensure they meet guidelines, but should allow the project to be girl-led.

 

Oops! Be sure to discuss your Silver Award with your troop leader. A copy of this report will be sent to your leader as well.

In order to start on a Silver Award, you need to have completed a Cadette Journey. Completing a Cadette Journey means you completed all required steps including a Take Action Project that relates to the journey.

Oops! Before you can begin your Silver Award, you must complete a Cadette Journey including its Take Action Project.

 

Once you've completed this prerequisite, come back and select the journey you've completed and select that you did complete the Take Action Project to move forward. 

You can decide to go solo or work with together with up to 3 other Cadettes on the Silver Award. Even if you decide to go solo on your Silver Award, it's important to work with others to accomplish your goal. This might be working with younger or older Girl Scouts, friends at school, or members of your community. It's always a great idea to bring in people to assist with tasks that you might not be able to do yourself.

Oops! Remember the Silver Award requires you to hold a leadership role, which means having a team to lead. 

How do I show leadership in my project?
It isn’t a leader’s job to do everything; rather, it’s the leader’s job to make sure everything gets done. You will demonstrate leadership by recruiting and engaging a diverse team of volunteers from your network and around the community. Share your vision to help align your team—you can also map out activities, set schedules, create a communication plan, and solve challenges if they arise.

Take Action projects require partnering with the community you’re serving, so be sure to enlist appropriate individuals, groups, or organizations before, during, and after your project to ensure they are engaged with and benefit from your project. Ideally, your project will provide the community you serve with a much needed solution, so they will help sustain your project.

Keep in mind that a good leader identifies specific team members with varied backgrounds and skill sets to assist with specific tasks associated with their project. While you may be inclined to primarily enlist your peers, adult support can help you form partnerships with organizations, access resources, and provide important safety measures (your council can help make sure you’re covered). Don't forget you can add more team members as you go along!

LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE: Caitlin elevated her passion for theater to raise awareness about substance abuse issues among high school students. She reached out to her high school’s drama club for volunteer actors and backstage crew members. She found volunteers within her Girl Scout troop to design and distribute promotional materials for performances.

At a local drug abuse education nonprofit, Caitlin learned about the extent of substance abuse in her town and found her project advisor. Her advisor connected her with volunteer educators who informed the educational components of Caitlin’s project and hosted talk-backs after performances. Finally, Caitlin engaged other high school drama clubs to ensure that the program continued to reach her target audience.

Once you've gather a team to lead in your project, use the back button and select the appropriate ways you'll be leading your team.

Oops! Remember the max number of Cadette Girl Scouts that can work on one Silver Award project is 4! If you have more than 4 Girl Scouts, you'll need to break into different teams and tackle different Silver Award projects. 

Once you've decreased your team to 4 or less, use the back button to select the correct amount and then you'll be able to move forward.

What are the names of the other Cadettes who will be working as project managers with you? Please include first and last name of each Girl Scout you will be working with on the Silver Award. (Remember each Cadette should submit their own form)

Oops! Remember a take action project requires you to solve the root cause of the issue you have identified. 

What is a root cause?
Root causes are an issue’s trigger—they identify why an issue is happening. Often, you’ll have to look for the why in a lot of places in order to get to the root causes. Once you’ve identified your issue, you can create a “mind map." This will help you find its root causes. A mind map can help you understand what triggers your issue and will help you look further to find the root causes of those triggers.

ROOT CAUSE EXAMPLE: Rachel is passionate about ocean conservation. She asks why ocean pollution happens and lists several causes, including acid rain, soil runoff, and oil spills. She remembers witnessing the harmful impact of a major oil spill in her local ecosystem and decides to learn more about why oil spills happen. Rachel reaches out to experts and, after additional research, learns that a lack of safety protocols for oil storage is one of the root causes. She chooses to create a project that addresses how oil storage can be made safer to prevent spills.

Once you have a root cause use the back button to select "yes" and you'll be able to continue

Oops! Collecting, beautifying, decorating, and cleaning and similar are typically service projects on their own. They can be part of a Take Action project; however these activities are not stand-alone Silver Award projects. Stay focused on unique solutions with long-term relief.

 

Once you've focused your project to make it a take action project, go back and hit "no" to be able to move to the next step.

Oops! Girl Scouts may not raise money for other individuals or organizations. Even if this is the root cause you identified, your solution cannot include raising money for other organizations.

Once you've ensured your project does not raise money for others, go back to the previous question and answer "no" to move on to the next question.

Oops! Remember Take Action requires you to work with the community to solve the root cause of the issue. It's important to engage members of your target audience throughout your project to ensure your solution is the best for your audience. Examples of how to include the target audience might include:

• Having them as a member(s) of your team
• Utilizing knowledgeable members for research on the issue
• Including them in the development of the solution
• Training them to implement and even take over the project and ensure its sustainability
• Have them focus group or provide feedback on parts of the project to see if it works for them

Once you've determined how you'll involve your target audience in your project, press the back button and select "yes" to move forward to the next section where you will share how you will include them.

Oops! Remember you must be able to see how your project made an impact which means having something to measure!

How do I measure my impact?
Your impact is measurable when you collect information or data throughout your project and use it to show that your actions have had a positive effect on the community and/or contributed to addressing your issue.

Think about what you can count in order to measure the effectiveness of your project. This means that you will need to set a goal or two! That way, when you measure your results, you’ll know how effective your project was overall. Goals can feel intimidating, but remember, you’re setting them for yourself—and they are adaptable.

You can begin demonstrating your impact by asking “how much?” or “how many?”

• You can count how many people your project helped, involved, or educated, or how many people changed their behavior or attitudes. You can also count the number of members in a group (social media or in person) or how may clicks, shares, views, or comments your website or posts received.
• If you are introducing a new concept to a group, you can use a pre- and post-questionnaire to measure how much they’ve learned or assess what behaviors they’ve changed.

Successful Silver Award projects have goals and measure true impact. Be confident in setting and measuring multiple goals, so you can understand the impact of each part of your project. And don’t be shy
about expanding your efforts as you go!

MEASUREMENT EXAMPLE:

Nancy is creating a technology class for women in the prison system to help prepare them for future employment. She sets two goals: to reach 50 women in the prison system with her technology class by the end of the school year and to be sure at least 75% of the women feel like they have increased their tech skills. To measure her impact, she plans to use two metrics: she will track participation to ensure she serves at least 50 women, and she will circulate questionnaires before and after the classes to assess if her participants are increasing their tech skills. By consistently tracking her progress, she can adjust her plan to
better meet her goals.

 

Once you've determined a way to measure your project and perhaps made a goal or two, press back and select "yes" to move forward and tell us more about how you will measure your project. 

Oops! In order to be a Take Action Project, you solution needs to be sustainable. 

What does a sustainable project look like?
Sustainability means that your project, as well as the work towards addressing your issue, carries on or continues even after you’ve done your part and earned the Gold Award. In a nutshell: you’ll put a plan in place that ensures your Gold Award creates lasting change.

Sustainability is not one-size-fits-all. Here are three different ways you can ensure your project is sustainable:

1. Create a pemanent solution.. and ensure it's used.

Short Project Description	How you know it is sustained...
Brand-new girls wrestling team at your school	Get a letter of commitment from your school administration to sustain the team
Cultural Competency club at a local community center	Provide a how-to manual with guidelines and your organization charter to the community so they can maintain your project after you wrap up
Formal-wear lending boutique for military families	Establish a system for rotating and refreshing available items that outlasts your support

2. Educate others by inspiring them to change their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors... and prove the changes by using a measurement too and either 1) putting a plan in place to continue the education beyond your involvement or 2) enacting a call to action.

Short Project Description	How you know it's sustained...
Stress-relief awareness campaign	Collect pre- and post-surveys to measure a change in your audience's knowledge and perceptions and enact a call to action, like a pledge, to track who commits to adopting new self-care habits
Reading workshops to promote early literacy	Collect pre- and post-surveys to measure how audience reading skills improve and share the curriculum with a community partner to continue literacy education
School recycling presentations	Collect pre- and post-surveys to measure increase in recycling know-how and enact a call to action like an online tracking system to count the number of students recycling at the school and total pounds of recycled material annually

3. Advocate to change a rule, regulation, or law... and engage others in your advocacy.

Short Project Description	How you know it's sustained...
Protecting sea turtle habitats	Get others to take up the cause by signing a petition as part of a campaign to enact a law that protects the animals' habitats. Your advocacy is what matters-- bonus points if you get a law passed, but even if you don't, you can still change minds along the way.

 

Once you've come up with a plab to sustain your project, hit the back button and answer "yes" to move forward and let us know that plan.

Oops! Plan to spend 50 hours of your own time bringing your project to life—that’s the minimum. These hours will give you the time you need to properly plan and execute your project—though keep in mind that your schedule and other time commitments will influence how long it takes to complete your project. This is OK, whatever timeline you follow is just fine! 

Things that CAN be part of your timeline:

• Research
• Contacting possible community partners
• Recruiting your team
• Investigating potential venues or technology
• Locking in logistics
• Meeting with your team
• Traing your team
• Leading your team
• Implementing your project
• Earning money for your Silver Award*
• Thanking team members and volunteers

Things that CANNOT be part of your timeline:

• Troop meetings unless they are focused on Silver Award work
• Cookie booths
• Prerequisites
• The hours your volunteers or other team members spend on the project

*Earning money should only make up a max of 5-10% of your hours. In other words if your project is a total of 50 hours, you can only count a max of 2.5-5 hours on approved money earning activities.

Once you've come up with your plan to spend 50 hours of your own time, hit the back button and select "yes" to move on to the next section.

Please remember the following concerning earning money for your project.

The following ARE allowed:

• Utilizing troop funds
• Setting goals with product sales (cookies and treats and reads) to fund your project
• Using personal or family money to fund your project
• Asking people to donate supplies as long as they know they will not get a tax deduction for doing so
• Holding an approved Money Earning Activity

 

The following ARE NOT allowed:

• Asking people to give you money
• Approaching businesses for goods or services
• Using GoFundMe, Venmo, or any other platform to solicit money from others
• Applying for youth grants (unless you've discussed this with GSOFCT first)

Not abiding by these monetary policies may jeopardize earning the Silver Award, and may leave you with a tax liability.