Empowering Girls

If you are working with younger girls, you can make a big difference in their lives. You can help them feel good about themselves; learn to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas; respect and get along with others and make friends. This can be done by encouraging diversity, creating a positive environment and helping the girls establish expectations for behaviour. So how do you do this?

Encouraging diversity means:

Recognizing the individual strengths of each girl.
Not focusing on a single skill all unit members should share.
Recognizing and encouraging creativity in completing activities and problem solving.
Rewarding the girls when they have done their best, even if it isn’t the same as everyone else’s.
Including all cultures and belief systems in the program.
Having the girls draw on their own experiences and backgrounds.
Making sure all voices are heard.

Create a positive environment means:

Including all members.
Allowing girls to participate in familiar routines.
Providing the opportunity for success.
Providing positive dialogue with other members and adults.
Encouraging all Members.
Recognizing but not making an issue of special needs.
Celebrating accomplishments, large or small.
Evaluating positively.
Giving praise and rewards when deserved.
Giving different kinds of praise and rewards (from tangible rewards like badges to intangible ones like smiles).
Focusing praise on the deed not the doer and make it specific.
Allowing each girl to tell her side of the story.
Not lecturing.
Not pointing out differences.
Not demanding answers.

Establishing expectations for behaviour means:

Working with girls to develop their own codes of behaviour. By involving them, you will help them understand these rules and why they exist.
Using consequences to teach and achieve positive results.
Focusing on the talents and skills of individual girls and encourage them to focus on solutions instead of who did what to whom.
Encouraging them to solve their own problems.
Intervening only if you are really needed (e.g., if someone’s safety is at risk).
Working with their sense of “fair play” to set limits that are clearly defined and applying them consistently.
Addressing or acknowledging the underlying cause to solve the problem.

Remembering that girls of any age can work together to solve problems through four steps you can help them understand. First, have them identify the problem. Encourage the use of “I” instead of the accusing “you” and get them to talk about their feelings. Have them try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. Second, have them think about different solutions to the problem or where they could go to find solutions. Encourage independent thought so that the solutions are their own. Third, choose a solution and put it into action. Encourage negotiation. Both must understand that they will have to compromise to find a mutually agreeable solution. Fourth, evaluate the solution. Always remember to follow up. Did the solution do what they hoped it would do? What could they do differently in the future?

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