Speak out... to make a difference

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Congratulations - by completing activities from the previous three sections, you have started to make a difference in your local community. You have also gained an important tool; you can prove that taking action makes a difference. This section helps you to use that tool to encourage others to take action too, particularly ‘decision-makers’. Decision-makers are people who make the decisions that affect our lives. They might be on your school board or local council, community leaders, or politicians in local or national government. Speaking out to make a difference is called advocacy. If you stand up for a cause you believe in and influence decision-makers, you are an advocate.

For the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, we are advocating when,

“we influence people to take decisions that will improve our lives and the lives of others”.

Influencing people always includes:

Speaking out (on issues that affect girls and young women and influencing decision-makers)

Doing (projects that address root causes of issues affecting girls and young womenEducating (girls, young women and society at large in areas such as leadership, health, peace and world citizenship)

Advocacy is a very exciting and effective way to change the world. This section starts with a list of demands; these are the messages we hope Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world will take to their decision-makers, to put our ten million voices into action. Use one of the activities in this section, or any activity marked SPEAK OUT from sections one to three, to deliver the demands.

Join your voice to the voices of all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts on World Thinking Day and take action to make these demands heard.

ACTIVITIES

Choose one way to deliver the WAGGGS’ demands

DEMANDS AND DECISION-MAKERS

These are words you will read a lot in this section, because demands and decision-makers are very important when speaking out.

Demands = what you want, the change you want to see. WAGGGS has written some demands for you to use, with space to add your own demands that will change your local community.

Decision-makers = Anyone with the power to decide to make your demands happen. This could be a school teacher or someone on your school board, the national board of your Girl Guide/Girl Scout Association, local or national politicians, the local council or community leaders. You need to identify the decision-makers around you.

Download a template letter for decision-makers here.

ACTIVITIES

MAKE IT HAPPEN – ACTIVITY IDEAS TO HELP YOU DELIVER THE DEMANDS

1

Voice through Art

Design a sculpture that captures one or more of your demands and obtain permission to publicly display in your local community. Use the sculpture to raise awareness of your demands.

2

Mass Movement

Prepare a play that communicates your demands and share with children from your school or local community. Educate them about the power of speaking out and see if they agree with the demands. Use education to attract as many supporters for your demands as possible.

3

Common Ground

Find out about the particular challenges faced by Girl Guides/Girl Scouts in another country. What challenges do you have in common? Get in touch with the Girl Guides/Girl Scouts in that country and share stories of how you are working on environmental issues. Is there something you can do together? Use your partnership to raise awareness of your work on the environment in the media. Visit www.worldthinkingday.org to see other Girl Guide/Girl Scout projects and upload your own activities.

4

Speaking Practice

Divide the group into smaller groups of three. Within the three, choose a Speaker, a Listener and an Observer. Ask the speaker to discuss a topic related to the environment. Ask the listener to respond with open questions (beginning with when/where/how/who/what) rather than closed questions (which require a yes/no answer). After three minutes, ask the observer to give constructive feedback about the Speaker’s performance and the quality of the Listener’s questions. Rotate the roles.

Log your actions here. Share your actions and stories with other Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and help us reach our target of 201,200 actions by 31 August 2012.

5

Stamp your Feet

YOUNGER

Draw round your feet and cut them out. Write in the middle of your left foot one way you will reduce your environmental ‘footprint’. On your right foot, write one thing you want decision-makers to change to make the world a better place. Decorate the footprints and display them at your meeting place. Invite local decision-makers to see them.

6

Greener Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

OLDER

Lobby your Girl Guide/Girl Scout Association to support environmental sustainability. Send your Chief Commissioner the list below and ask them what they are doing already. If you see room for improvements send them some suggestions! You can use this list from the WAGGGS position statement as guidance.

  • Deliver non-formal education programmes to girls and young women to enable them to take an active part in shaping and ensuring a sustainable environment for young and future generations.
  • Promote a sustainable lifestyle that takes into account what impact our actions have on our natural and social environment.
  • Use non-formal education to raise awareness on the right to safe and sufficient water and the right of everyone to an environment that is adequate for general health and well-being.
  • Highlight environmental values as part of the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting method.
  • Develop skills to gain access to and control over resources and their benefits, especially among girls and young women in rural areas and other marginalized communities.
  •  Environmental knowledge and practices translated into life-skills will help to shift traditionally subordinate relationships of women to men in resource management.
  • Encourage and create platforms for intergenerational dialogue, exchange and mentoring with the aim to build a sustainable society.
  • Create platforms to exchange ideas as well as learning from older women, including those from indigenous traditions, who can strengthen the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of girls.
  • Develop and expand North-South and South-South partnerships to help alleviate many of the world’s environmental problems, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and exhaustion of fishery resources and water.
  • Advocate for local governments to enhance education of girls and young women with practical knowledge of the skills needed to achieve environmental sustainability.