Did you know Girl Scouts in Chicago bunk with butterflies at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum? Work as a team to navigate a ropes course? Travel to Costa Rica? Girl Scouts in Chicago do so much more than camping, crafts and selling cookies.

Healthy Living
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana’s Healthy Living initiative promotes positive attitudes and behaviors that will lead to healthier lifestyles in girls. Girls learn what a healthy body is for them and how to build and maintain it. Girls discover ways to use resources easily available to them to stay fit and participate in various forms of physical activity. Girls learn about self-esteem and how to build and maintain positive self-esteem. Lead Sponsor of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Healthy Living Initiative:





Leadership
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana’s Leadership initiative builds girls’ courage, confidence and character by developing their knowledge of self, understanding of leadership, and teamwork, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Girls define leadership characteristics, discover who they are and the leadership skills they possess, lead others, and take action by providing service to their community. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana thanks United Way of Metropolitan Chicago for their support of this program.

A unique leadership experience for teen Girl Scouts, STUDIO 2B: Destinations give girls a chance to explore the world and be part of the greater Girl Scout community through interacting with Girl Scouts from throughout the country and world. Destinations presents amazing cultural experiences for girls to meet people from throughout the world, to build leadership and organizational skills for life, and to participate in events and activities they may have not otherwise have been able to experience. Examples of Destinations include a nine-day expedition to the Galapagos Islands, a ten-day trek through the Costa Rican rainforest, or DigiGirls High-Tech Camp, where girls spend a week of inspiration and hands-on adventures at Microsoft.

Financial Education
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana’s Financial Education initiative develops girls’ attitudes, skills, confidence, and competence in managing money and helps them prepare for future careers. Girls learn the difference between wants and needs, how to perform basic money management tasks such as budgeting, and the reasons for saving and investing.

Teen Girl Scouts from Chicago develop an understanding of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and how to write a business plan through the From Badge to Business program. The program has three phases: 1) Power Lunch, 2) From Badge to Business weekend retreat, and 3) Preparing and submitting a business plan. Based on girls’ progression through the program and their final business plan, girls are awarded post-secondary education scholarships. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana thanks the Alcoa Foundation for its generous continuing support of this program.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
Girls put science to work and develop an interest in STEM while developing leadership and problem-solving skills in this initiative. Through hands-on, team-based activities, girls discover how science, technology, engineering, and math impact their daily lives.

Due to generous support from ComEd, girls from throughout the council participate in workshops held at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Through these workshops, hundreds of girls explore nature, biology, the atmosphere and outer space. Examples of activities include: investigating what lives in the soil at one’s feet, taking a peek into a pond to see what lives in a water habitat, learning ways to conserve energy, exploring the science behind magnetism, and discovering the engineering behind bridges and dams. More details can be found in our press release.

STEM programming is also offered to girls through our GirlSpace program thanks to support from BP. GirlSpace provides 1,200 girls ages 6-14 living in low-income, underserved communities a safe, educational program to attend after school at 24 Chicago Public Schools from October to June. Girls participate in hands-on STEM activities and discussions which tie to Girl Scout Try-Its and badges.

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