Service Projects

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“To do a good turn daily.”

Service is an important part of the Girl Scout philosophy, and all troops and groups are encouraged to seek out opportunities for service. Projects may involve helping other people, animals or our environment. It can be a fantastic opportunity for girls to make new acquaintances and to experience the wonderful world of giving.

Service should be a tradition for each of us in Girl Scouting, without need of reward. Girls should be encouraged to plan, promote and participate in service projects for the joy and satisfaction of helping others rather than to earn something for themselves.

Planning Your Own Service Project

Troops and group leaders, as well as individual girls and adults should feel free to use their local community contacts to design community service that is of interest to them. Please keep in mind the following questions when deciding on a community service project.

Does the project:

Provide service to someone in the community rather than to Girl Scouts?
Allow for girl involvement and responsibility both in planning and execution?
Offer opportunities for girls to get to know new people?
Provide for understanding the responsibility of citizenship?
Focus on the contemporary interests and concerns of young people?
Provide for an involvement with people of different backgrounds?

Council-Wide Service Projects

Each year, the council coordinates a variety of council-wide service projects open to troops and groups from throughout the council.

African Library Project
Discover your Watershed
My New Red Shoes
One Warm Coat
Project Open Hand
Read Afghanistan
You Make Me Smile Campaign - a project of the Confidence Coalition

Greater Bay Area Service Projects

North Coast Area Service Projects

North Central Area Service Projects

Area specific service projects for North Central Area will be available soon.

African Library Project

The African Library Project (ALP) promotes literacy and education in sub-Sah Africa Library Project aran Africa through small library development in schools and villages without access to books. By sending culturally and developmentally appropriate books, including HIV/AIDS books written especially for African children, ALP works to change lives, book by book.

How Your Troop Can Participate

Your troop can help start a library in Africa by organizing your own book drive. Use ALP’s Book Drive Guidelines to collect, sort, pack and then mail your books to the ALP warehouse, where they will be packaged for shipment to Africa. Your goal is to collect 1,000 appropriate books and approximately $500 for shipping costs. Each book drive takes about six weeks.

ALP will match your troop with an African community or school in Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, or Swaziland. You’ll know exactly where your books are going and can learn about the community and country. If you like, include pictures or letters from your troop to your African partner.

For more information about how your troop can start a library in Africa, please visit www.africanlibraryproject.orgor email bookdrives@africanlibraryproject.org

My New Red Shoes

My New Red Shoes is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that helps homeless and low-income children look and feel confident as they start the school year by providing them with new clothing and shoes. By providing this gift for the start of the school year, thousands of Bay Area homeless youth can go to school with their heads held high and start the school year on the right foot. Click on the links below to explore My New Red Shoes’ age-appropriate, meeting and Take Action kits designed specifically for each level of Girl Scouting to coincide with your troop’s badge and Leadership Journeys.

Daisy Brownie Junior Cadette Senior Ambassador

Specific Service and Take Action Projects:

Sew simple gift bags: My New Red Shoes distributes clothing gift cards and shoes to homeless children in simple, handmade, cotton gift bags, signed by the. These bags are perfect project for Girl Scouts just learning how to sew as they only have three seams and an unfinished top. For directions and more information on sewing the gift bags, please visit the Get Involved section of My New Red Shoes' website at www.mynewredshoes.org.

Host a brand new shoe drive: Would your troop like to host a shoe drive to help homeless kids start off the school year on the right foot? My New Red Shoes collects brand new school shoes for children ages 5-18. For donation guidelines, please visit www.mynewredshoes.org.

Decorate First Day Cards: Each gift bag we provide includes a hand-written card with an encouraging message for the homeless and low-income student recipient. Printable templates are available at www.mynewredshoes.org.

For more information about My New Red Shoes' volunteer opportunities, please visit www.mynewredshoes.org/girl-scouts.html or email outreach@mynewredshoes.org.

One Warm Coat

One Warm Coat is a national non-profit organization that assists in the donation of coats. One Warm Coat helps individuals, groups, companies and organizations across the country collect coats and deliver them to local agencies that distribute them free, to people in need. The organization’s mission is to ensure that anyone who needs a coat has one. Providing this simple, yet vital, need helps people live productive lives year round. Since inception, more than 750,000 coats have been collected and distributed through One Warm Coat activities. Last year we collected over 7,000 coats during these collection drives!

This is your opportunity to be part of this exciting afternoon and to help make a difference in your community! You can volunteer to help receive coats or stop by and donate coats at these special drop-off locations!

For more information on how to host your own coat drive, please click here.

Volunteer Information
Here are the exciting volunteer opportunities available with the collection site in San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose, and Walnut Creek! We need help with the following positions:

Council Representative (1-3 people covering two-three shifts at each site)
a. At this time, we need Council Representatives in San Francisco, Emeryville, and San Jose.
b. This position can be broken into shifts during the day or one person can oversee the entire day.
c. The Council Representative oversees the coat collection during their shift.
Troop Volunteers (at least 5 troops during the day covering 2-3 shifts at each site)
a. Represent Girl Scouts of Northern California and hopefully be shown on TV during the day!
b. Volunteers will assist people in carrying their donated coats to the coat donation barrels and boxes.
c. Offer thanks for their donation
d. Sort and organize the coats - 10 coats to a bag, if possible.

Please click here for more information on One Warm Coat job descriptions.

One Warm Coat Drive - Emeryville (Shifts are Full)
Be a part of a wonderful holiday tradition. Join us at our annual drive on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Bay Street. KTVU television will be on hand for interviews and live coverage! Your troop can collect coats for those in need in our community.

Who: All Girls Grades K-12 and Adults
When: Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Time: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Bay Street in Emeryville next to the Elephant Bar Restaurant

If you are interested in volunteering to help collect coats from troops, please contact Alexis Daniel at adaniel@girlscoutsnorcal.org with the times you are available on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and which site as soon as possible. Please let us know if you would like to be the Council Representative for this site.

One Warm Coat Drive - San Jose (Shifts are Full)
Be a part of a wonderful holiday tradition. Join us at our annual drive on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Santana Row. KTVU television will be on hand for interviews and live coverage! Your troop can collect coats for those in need in our community.

Who: All Girls Grades K-12 and Adults
When: Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Time: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Santana Row and Olin, in front of Pinkberry Yogurt, San Jose

If you are interested in volunteering to help collect coats from troops, please contact Alexis Daniel at adaniel@girlscoutsnorcal.org with the times you are available on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and which site as soon as possible. Please let us know if you would like to be the Council Representative for this site.

One Warm Coat Drive - Walnut Creek (Shifts are full)
Be a part of a wonderful holiday tradition. Join us at our annual drive on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Broadway Plaza. KTVU television will be on hand for interviews and live coverage! Your troop can collect coats for those in need in our community.

Who: All Girls Grades K-12 and Adults
When: Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Time: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Fountain at Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek

One Warm Coat Drive - San Francisco (Shifts are Full)
Be a part of a wonderful holiday tradition. Join us at our annual drive on the Friday after Thanksgiving at the San Francisco Ferry Building. KTVU television will be on hand for interviews and live coverage! Your troop can collect coats for those in need in our community.

Who: All Girls Grades K-12 and Adults
When: Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Time: 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Where: TBD

If you are interested in volunteering to help collect coats from troops, please contact Nancy Schlesinger at namu10182003@yahoo.com with the times you are available on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and which site as soon as possible. Please let us know if you would like to be the Council Representative for this site.

Project Open Hand

Project Open Hand is a Bay Area organization that serves meals daily to over 2,000 clients with AIDS and HIV throughout San Francisco and the East Bay.

How Your Troop Can Participate
Your troop can make inspirational greeting cards, which will be included in clients’ daily meal packages to give them a special personal touch. Cards will be collected year round.

This is a fabulous Service Project to complete at any troop meeting!

Please mail your completed cards to:
Girl Scouts of Northern California Oakland Office
Attn: Program Department / Project Open Hand
7700 Edgewater Drive, Suite 340
Oakland, CA 94621

For more information on this Service Project, please download the Project Open Hand Information Sheet.

Read Afghanistan

At the request of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, GSNorCal asks for support from the public in donating children's books to help Afghan students like the ones pictured below learn English. For more information, please click here.

For those troops who participated in the Read Afghanistan service project, thank you! The Girl Scouts of Northern California collected and sent over 6,000 books to Afghanistan. We have been asked to put a 3-month hold on sending books because they have run into storage issues. Lieutenant Don Davis said, “this project is beyond anything I could have hoped for."

Rachael Cook with the Department of State commented, "It's so sweet that the books often have cards and notes in them made by the Girl Scouts who collected the books. The girls in Farah chose some of those cards and put them on the notice board on the wall of the English Center."

You Make Me Smile Campaign - a project of the Confidence Coalition

Thank you to over 2,166 girls who participated in this campaign councilwide! Over 200 troops made this part of their Girl Scout experience at troop meetings, on field trips and at Service Unit World Thinking Day events.

Click here to read the news article in a local paper featuring two troops from Brentwood.

Based on our surveys, girl felt connected to their community locally and globally, felt empowered to make a difference, were resourceful problem solvers and educated and inspired others to act.

"They felt good giving the balloons for something good and no one even asked for a balloon to take home" - Daisy Leader

"This campaign was a fun way for the girls to learn more about women's issues locally and globally as well as becoming more aware that they have the ability to empower others with something as simple as a smile and message of encouragement and hope. The girls tied the campaign and the Girl Scout Journey "Amaze!" by hosting a booth where guests [...] decorated a card with an empowering message, like Believe in Your Dreams, that will be shared with women's shelters in locally and in Australia." - Cadette Leader

Lovinia

Even the most confident woman has moments of uncertainty. Is it good enough? Am I good enough? Am I on the right track? What do they think? What if they don’t like it? And for most of us, those moments come much too often. Lack of confidence can affect so many areas of our lives. As girls we start out with big dreams, ideas of changing the world and making our mark. Then, over time, our confidence is undermined by the world, parents, friends, adversaries… and own inner voices. We allow ourselves to be bullied. We let others define our own self - worth. It’s time to embrace our own self-worth and uplift the women and girls in our lives.

Girl Scouts of Northern California is joining the Confidence Coalition in a project called the “You Make Me Smile” Campaign.

It’s designed to brighten a woman or girl’s day and boost her confidence. And it’s easy to do! Just inflate blue balloons, write confidence-boosting messages on them, then give balloons to girls and women of all ages. Girls will feel empowered by giving balloons and just think about the impact you may have on girls and women in your community.

Be a part of this council-wide project and share your troop’s experience through photos, videos or special quotes with our custom survey here. It's not too late to participate!

For information on the Confidence Coalition and Girl Scouts of the USA’s involvement click here.