From Local to Global – Connecting Your Gold Award Project to a Larger Community

From Local to Global – Connecting Your Gold Award Project to a Larger Community

As Girl Scouts working towards our Gold Award, we have found an issue that is important to us… but is this issue important to others outside our local community? How are others affected but this issue? How are they working to solve this problem?

Making sure that we have achieved the global component of our Gold Award is important, but it is often the most neglected piece our project. So, how do you make sure that you haven’t overlooked this key element?

First, let’s take a look at the definition of National/Global Link. Girl Scouts should identify national and/or global links to their selected issue. Girl Scouts should learn from others and apply what they’ve learned to their project. Once their project is complete, they need to develop a plan to share the results of the project beyond the local community.  The hope is for you to develop a deeper understanding of your issue and how it affects people around the world.

In order to achieve this, you must first do your RESEARCH. Are there others out there in the world that that are facing similar challenges and issues that you are addressing in your Gold Award Project? What are they experiencing? How are they working towards a solution to their problem? Can you learn from their problem and solution?

Now that you know what others are doing, can this solution be helpful to you or jump-start your thinking? Take your thoughts and ideas from your research and apply it to your project as you see fit.

Finally, spread the word about your project and the impact it made, so that they may learn from you. Some ways to do this may include… guest blogging for online newspapers or developing a letter writing campaign to local officials and national organizations.