Get Involved | Girl Scouts

Choose your own adventure

Find out how to get involved as a Girl Scout or adult volunteer.

Choose your own adventure and discover your interests alongside other Girl Scouts. Join a troop and make new friends or blaze your own trail as an individually registered member. Your experience is completely up to you!

Adults choose their own Girl Scouting adventure, too. Share your expertise during a special event, chaperone an exciting outing, or help Girl Scouts explore endless possibilities and connect the dots as their troop leader.

Become a Girl Scout

Making friends, discovering strengths, exploring new possibilities. It’s all waiting for you.

JOIN NOW

Volunteer

With you by their side, Girl Scouts are ready to change the world.

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Community Outreach

We go the extra mile so girls in underserved communities can participate in Girl Scouts.

Community Troops

No school-based troop? Girls may enjoy the benefits of a troop that is community based instead.

Girl Scouts Beyond Bars

Girls whose mothers and grandmothers are in prison benefit from the safe environment this program provides.

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Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri serves thousands of youth in areas underserved by traditional troop structures. Through community outreach programs held in community centers and schools, girls are able to experience the joys of Girl Scouting while developing positive life and leadership skills. Girls will develop emotional literacy and strengthen communication skills, learn about healthy relationships, and explore ways to prevent bullying and reduce violence through peer-led initiatives. Fun, hands-on activities enhance learning.

For more information about the innovative programs below, please email Community Outreach or call 314.592.2314.

Be a Friend First (BFF)
Project Anti-Violence (PAVE)
Transform UR Future (TUF)

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Not all girls have a Girl Scout troop in their immediate area. That’s where Community Troops come in! This program provides the Girl Scout Leadership Experience in a troop setting to girls who otherwise would not have the opportunity. Community Troops are led by trained Girl Scout staff members, called Community Troop Managers. They provide troop leadership for numerous troops in schools, churches and community centers.

Participation Basics

Troop Leadership from the Community Troop Manager
2 meetings per month during the school year
4 field trips per year
Program supplies
Snacks
Each girl earns up to 5 skill building badges, patches and or pins
Parent and guardian communication through e-mail, handouts, parent meetings and publications (Inspire Discovery and Camp Adventure Guide)
Troop participation in Product Programs
Treats & Reads Program (Oct.)
Girl Scout Cookie Program (Jan.)
Access to all programs Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri offers; program information is covered in Inspire Discovery (Aug. and Jan.) and Camp Adventure Guide (Nov.)
Membership with Girl Scouts of the USA

Benefits for Girls

They develop a strong sense of self
They display positive values
They seek challenges and learn from setbacks
They form and maintain healthy relationships
They learn to identify and solve problems in their community

Expectations for Parents

Fill out membership registration form – must be completed for all girls participating and adults are encouraged to join (financial assistance available)
Fill out the Yearly Annual Permission Form
Keep contact information updated
Attend parent meetings throughout the year
Help at meetings and/or on field trips when needed
Support your Girl Scout with Product Programs and other activities
Pick up your Girl Scout on time
Read communications from Troop Leader and Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri
Support behavior expectations and talk to your Girl Scout about her behavior, as necessary
Ask questions

Community Troop Partners

The Girl Scout Community Troop program is made possible with the support of our partners, Alicia McDonnell, Anne M. McDonnell, Bank of America, Cathy Rogers, Cigna, Edward Jones, Emerson, Holly James, Incarnate Word Foundation, James S. McDonnell Family Foundation, Katherine McDonnell, Marcella M. Stevens, Mimi Abbott, Penny Pennington and Michael Fidler and The Saigh Foundation.

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Since 1996, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri has been working with girls of incarcerated mothers and grandmothers through the specialized Girl Scouts Beyond Bars (GSBB) multi-level troop program. The troop meets weekly to create a safe, stable and supportive network for girls. And, in order to address the stress a child endures when her mother or grandmother is incarcerated, counseling services are made available to all troop participants.

The troop experience allows these girls to participate in Girl Scout activities that build self-esteem and help girls foster healthy relationships with both their peers and adult volunteers. At least once a month the troop travels to the Women’s Correctional Facility in Vandalia, Mo. or the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Mo., allowing incarcerated mothers and grandmothers to participate in troop meetings and complete leadership-building activities with their Girl Scout.

We accept referrals through our partnership with the correctional facility as well as from schools, Division of Family Services (DFS) and family members.

Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program Goals

Preserve the mother/daughter relationship
Reduce the trauma of separation
Minimize the girls' at-risk behaviors by modeling positive values through Girl Scouting
Provide opportunities for the girls to have positive experiences with their mothers in the safe, supportive environment of a troop meeting

For more information on Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, please complete our interest form.

Funding for the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program is generously provided by:

Cigna
Graybar Foundation
Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis
Trio Foundation