Causes: Children & Youth, Children & Youth Services, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

Mission: To build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place through informal education programs designed to help girls put into practice the fundamental principles of the girl scout movement.

Programs: Supplemental activities, council events and camps benefit our 24,714 girl members. Ohio's heartland council offered over 720 separate events/workshops attended by 23,540 girls ages 5-17 between october 1, 2013 and september 30, 2014. 14,235 girls participated in our cookie program, with girls selling over 2. 1 million boxes of cookies, giving a per girl average of 151 boxes. Over 21,000 boxes were donated to operation salute and delivered to the men and women serving in our military. Over 3,700 girls participated in our fall product program, selling almost 61,000 nuts and candy items and over 4,800 magazine subscriptions. Through the product programs, girl scouts learned five skills essential to success in life goal seeking, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. Our program pathways are aligned with the girl scout leadership experience and journeys curriculum. The events/workshops covered topics such as environmental education, horseback riding, life skills, (first aid, babysitting training), anti-bullying, dance and theater programs, health and fitness, animal care, fine arts, history, science, technology, engineering and math. The council offered over 9 week-long summer resident camp sessions which served nearly 4,400 girls ages 5-17, with over 650 adult volunteers providing support for all of the camp options. A combination of 88 different camps engaged the campers in programs geared toward their specific age and interests.

girl scouts of ohio's heartland council served 5,897 girls through a wide variety of targeted series pathways in numerous nontraditional settings in all geographic areas of the council. Series pathway programs include bonds beyond bars, in-school scouting, lunch bunch, after school, and programs with the homeless population and community centers serving low-income, high minority, and/or rural populations. Forty-two participants were served through bonds beyond bars, community bridge troop and ohio reformatory for women. More than 915 girls were served through our in-school scouting collaboration with columbus city schools and boy scouts, simon kenton council. Other outreach initiatives provide in-school, latch key, summer programs and after-school girl scout programming for nearly 4,940 additional girls. Our programs are based on the girl scout leadership experience and journeys curriculum. We provide programming topics in the areas of self-esteem, confidence-building, positive social interactions, leadership and citizenship to stem (science, technology, engineering and math) and creative writing. Summer series programs also extend girl scout opportunities through community initiatives with summer meals programs and recreation centers. Our inaugural golead academy recognized 38 girls who attended the leadership program held at otterbein university. The state of the girl held its first annual event in 2014 which examined girls health and well-being in the united states.

volunteer recruitment, development, enrichment, support and recognitions for 4,769 registered adult members and volunteers. Volunteers participate in core required courses of orientation, safety essentials, volunteer essentials, cpr/first aid and troop camp certification. Volunteers have the opportunity to participate in nearly 185 different enrichment courses annually. These are delivered face to face, online, online facilitated and home study. Courses are offered throughout the council jurisdiction. The events include but are not limited to adult camporee (1), autumn adventure (1), spring xpo (1), one day and done training days (2) and various regional events targeting specific needs and recognitions. The courses are designed to provide organizational knowledge (both national and local), educate about the girl scout leadership experience, and provide resources, ideas, experience, and hard and soft skills that support the adults who lead our girls. The courses are facilitated and presented by a core of 61 trained volunteers. The process also includes a recognition system that honors the service of volunteers at the council level, service unit level, and service delivery level. Volunteers are recognized through awards, events, patches, news articles, social media and personalized thank you gifts. Our volunteers have dedicated over 1. 2 million hours of their time to support our girls.