Thursday 6 October 2016

Young Leaders in a Guide Unit - how to support them?

What kind of support should we be giving to our Young Leaders at the guide unit?  They are not part of any other Senior Section/Rangers unit, so attending our Guide Unit as YLs is their only regular participation in the Girlguiding Senior Section, and in effect, we are their SS leaders.

These are the things that Girlguiding says should be part of the Senior Section Programme

  • Follow the core Look Wider programme, including
    • Understanding the octants, and phases of octants
    • Ensuring the YLs have time to plan and do their Octant activities if requiredd
  • Take on new responsibilities, e.g. become a Young Leader or even, work on the Young Leader Qualification
    • Ensure the YLs are involved in unit planning sessions
    • Ensure the YL's have time given and opportunities to complete their LQ clauses
    • Ensure YLs are given dedicated leader time to help them through their LQ programme - appropriate mentoring.
  • Participation in wider SS activities - ensure that SS opportunities from division, district, county, region and national level are offered to these members. This may mean Guide leaders attending these activities with the girls (if this is required at the event)
One thing that concerns me is that I am a Guide leader, not a SS leader.  I have completed my LQ with a module for the Guide Programme. I have not completed the module for SS Programme, yet we are encouraged to have a YL join us who isn't getting SS programme guidance anywhere else, other than with us.   This seems to be a bit of an anomoly in how this area works, and I worry that my SS YL girls may be missing out.  I regularly encourage them to join a local ranger unit, but with school and other commitments, they are understandably hesitant.

Also, as I am not a SS unit leader in Go!, I don't regularly get to hear about SS unit events going on and am not included on SS mailings. The girls (as SS members with email addresses on Go!) do get some of these emails, but if I don't get them as well, I can't encourage them to participate.  And everyone knows that teenagers aren't always particularly motivated to organise and plan things without a bit of a nudge in the right direction!

What to do?

No comments:

Post a Comment