Our Commitment to Belonging
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana embraces an inclusive culture. We are committed to continual learning and to a culture of safety and wellbeing in which individuality is celebrated and everyone is valued and respected. Everyone is welcome to bring their authentic selves into our space.
Our ongoing commitment as an organization:
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana partners with the following groups to promote belonging.
Gold Member and Workforce Pilot Participant. BEI is a joint effort of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and the Indy Chamber, in collaboration with the Indianapolis Urban League, to grow a more inclusive business climate and build greater equity and economic opportunity.
Member. Forum for leaders, advocates and supporters of organizational diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Partner. IYG creates safer spaces to foster community and provides programming that empowers LGBTQ+ youth and magnifies their voices. Girl Scouts of Central Indiana worked with IYG to develop an inclusiveness statement that informs our work and then trained all staff in maintaining an inclusive environment for staff and girls.
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana leads a $15 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support diverse membership growth within six Girl Scout councils serving Indiana girls. This funding also supports the Girl Coalition of Indiana, a new opportunity to expand community partnerships and remove barriers so every girl can live her best life—physically, academically, emotionally, and socially—through Girl Scouts.
Organizational Strategic Priorities to Support Belonging
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana's team engaged an outside consultant
to review hiring practices and ways in which we develop and maintain
an inclusive culture. The team received a list of recommendations and
has been working to make improvements.
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana has taken steps to enhance accessibility for individuals with disabilities at our camps and on our website, through updates in providing physical access and access to information and resources. Additionally, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana has committed to making Girl Scout programming available in the languages most used in the communities we serve.
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana is interested in enabling all staff to grow personally and professionally. The council engaged ML Talent Strategies to define and establish an intentional culture of personal and professional development to enable future growth, including advancement and succession planning options for all staff.
TrueU is just one of the resources Girl Scouts of Central Indiana provides for personal and professional development for all staff.
Girl Scouts has partnered to publish the annual Indiana Girl Report that features data across social, emotional, academic and physical metrics, successes and challenges Indiana girls are facing, along with a platform that seeks to identify ways in which, statewide, we can collectively lift up the needs of girls so they may live their best lives. The information is available here and is dissectible across a number of factors including zip code.
Girl Scouts stands up for an inclusive culture and pledges to work for a just society for all.
At Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, we build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. We want to reiterate to all girls, volunteers, alums, supporters, families, and staff that we do not tolerate oppression, and we invite everyone to come along side us on our journey.
We recognize that this is far from easy or fast work, but we are Girl Scouts—we believe in sisterhood, justice, and fairness—so we are in it for the long haul. We take action when we see a need and we live by the Girl Scout Law, which demands we seek inclusivity for everyone.
Girl Scouts Anti-Racism Pledge
At Girl Scouts of the USA, we build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. In this moment of suffering in our nation, Girl Scouts commits to taking action to support Black girls, their families, and their communities. We want to reiterate to all girls, volunteers, alums, supporters, families, and staff that we do not tolerate racial injustice and we know that Black Lives Matter.
We commit to doing all we can, using our collective power, to help create the change in our communities that is long overdue. We will do our part to dismantle systemic racism. We recognize that this is far from easy or fast work, but we are Girl Scouts—we believe in sisterhood, justice, and fairness—so we are in it for the long haul. We take action when we see a need and we live by our Girl Scout Law, which demands we seek racial equity for everyone.
Using Education to Fight Racism
Meet Ana and read about her Gold Award project, Using Education to Fight Racism.
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