The Interagency Task Force
On
Gangs And Youth Violence
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~ What Girl Scouting Could
Do About Girls and Gangs ~
There's not much that can't be done when someone or some organization puts their mind and muscle to it. As to the phenomenon of girls and gangs, Girl Scouting could:
Provide an educational unit on at-risk girls, girls and gangs, and female delinquents to existing scouts.
Bring at-risk girls into the fold of scouting through a variety of informal and informal mechanisms.
Offer a merit badge related to involvement with at-risk girls (i.e., mentoring badges that encourage field trips and other learning and social experiences with at-risk girls, tutoring badges for assisting at-risk girls in performing better at school).
Offer a merit badge related to work in at-risk communities providing clean-up of streets, house painting, yard clean up, and more.
Offer a merit badge for adopting a local social agency that provides services for at-risk girls and their families.
Involve the mothers of at-risk girls in scouting-related activities in order to build connections between them and other female, adult role models; to see their children in a scouting setting; and to build trust between the at-risk mothers and their daughters and scouting members.
Have a sanctioned street festival (or a festival on the neighborhood school grounds) for girls and their mothers who live in at-risk neighborhoods.
Raise funds to provide a Girl Scout Scholarship for at-risk girls who otherwise would not be able to join the Girl Scouts.
Offer a merit badge for adopting a school which has a large proportion of at-risk female students. The adoption would result in providing whatever services/activities the Scouts would like to provide and which the school has approved.