Before answering question 6, please review the “Take Action vs. Community Service” section of the Cadette Workbook for Earning Your Silver Award to make sure your project is truly Take Action. Community service only projects are not appropriate for a Silver Award project.
Community service addresses an immediate need in the community, is done FOR the community and is a one time project that helps something or someone now.
The following projects are not Take Action projects and cannot be accepted:
- Volunteering for another organization or exsiting program.
- Collection drives.* Collecting food, clothing, toys, supplies, etc. fullfils an immediate need and doesn't address address an issue's root cause or is sustainable.
- Make-and-donate projects* such as making blankets, pillows, fidget kits, pet toys, etc. and donating them to hospitals, schools, or other community organizations does not meet Take Action requirements. While helpful, donations don’t identify and address a root cause, and they provide immediate but not long-term relief.
- Beautification and renovation projects*. They are short term efforts that help fulfill an immediate need, done for the community, and are without an education or sustainability component. Girl Scouts are acting as the workforce instead of leading a project. (Cleaning a park, planting a garden or flowers, placing pavers, replacing an exsisting sign, painting a fence, etc.)
- Performing short-term tasks for an organization.(Organizing materials, painting a room, fixing broken furniture or equipment, etc.)
- Building only projects*. (Building benches, Little Free Libraries, gaga ball pits, ramps, dog houses, garden boxes, etc.)
- Projects that are “to relieve boredom”. Boredom can certainly be a root cause of an issue, but projects that identify boredom as the issue will not be accepted.
*These activities can be a small part of a larger Take Action project, but these activites can not be the majority or only part of the project. No more than five hours of the total project should be devoted to these type of activities.
Take Action addresses an issue's root cause with a unique project idea, done with the community, that will reduce or eliminate the root cause of the issue in a way that is sustainable and makes a long-term impact.
Example: If your issue is low literacy rates in your community, building a free little library will not address low literarcy rates - it only supplies books. Your project needs to reduce or eliminate the root cause of low literacy rates with your unique and sustainable solution. If you discover low literacy rates are cause by lack of supportive adults who read to and encourage children to read, you could partner with a youth-serving community organization and create an on-going program in which volunteers read to children, and the children can take the book with them (free books collected with a book drive) at the end of the program.