Girl Scouts Of San Gorgonio Council

What We Do

Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio (GSSGC) strengthens the education, health, financial, employment, and leadership abilities to improve overall conditions of girls and young women in the Coachella Valley and beyond.

Girl Scouts was founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low who believed girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually through community service involvement and hands-on learning. We reach across class, culture, and ethnic boundaries to ensure ALL girls have a place to grow and develop their life and leadership skills. Reaching out to underserved and economically challenged populations. GSSGC provides a powerful time-tested all-girl program specifically designed for girls and young women to become independent, resilient, and courageous agents for community change.

GSSGC seeks to provide a welcoming experience for all girls, regardless of background. Funds raised fill a critical need for training, programs, and processes to meet girls where they are and grow alongside them. Girl Scouting has expanded to provide more flexible programming to allow girls to learn and grow at a pace comfortable to them. Girls often express how Girl Scouting has helped them grow in their daily lives. We continue to cultivate these positive experiences in an intentional and meaningful way.

How We Do It

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience advances girls and women into leadership roles by applying our extensive mentorship approach. Girl Scouts helps girls develop their individual potential by honing their leadership skills through the lens of experiential learning and playful collaboration. We inspire girls to discover, connect, and take action. All programs center around the Girl Scout Promise and Law and uniquely encourage girls to take leadership of their activities. Here are just a few areas of growth & development included in the experience.

Outdoors and Environment: Girls learn about the environment and environmental concerns through experiential projects to build understanding of what is happening to our planet. Our outdoor programming features a variety of fun and challenging activities that empower girls as they develop values, skills, and behaviors essential to effective leadership in the outdoors. Eight in ten girls say Girl Scouting allows them to do outdoor activities they have never done before and would not have done otherwise. Girl Scouts opens the door to outdoor experiences for many girls.

Career Exploration & STEM: Our STEM career exploration program format helps girls connect math and science proficiency to their career interests, integrating academics with career-based learning and workplace experiences. This includes providing activities that align with Riverside County schools' Career Technical Education. The goal is to cultivate girl interest in STEM and nontraditional female career fields by the time they enter high school. This way girls can prepare to take career-specific pathways offered by the schools in areas such as engineering and cybersecurity.

The Girl Scout Entrepreneurial Program (Popularly known as the Girl Scout Cookie Sale): The largest girl-led business in the world which fuels economic development by training girls to budget, manage money, set goals and exercise people skills. Their efforts result in troop earnings and individual rewards that stimulate the local economy will all proceeds staying local. Entrepreneurial earnings provide graduation packages, SAT prep and testing fees, technology, local adventures, travel and other items many families cannot afford for their girls.

Local Partnerships & Impact

In Coachella Valley, we collaborate with school districts, businesses, and post-secondary education institutions to address current community needs. GSSGC has developed diverse partnerships with The City of Palm Springs, Annenberg Foundation and Irene W. and Guy L. Anderson Children's Foundation. Girl Scout program opportunities have been offered in Palm Springs Unified School District, Desert Sands Unified School District, and Coachella Valley Unified School District.

Testimonial

Hailey Mims is a young African American woman residing in Riverside County. She engaged in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience for 13 years, from kindergarten all the way through senior year of high school. Hailey graduated the program and continued on to Cal State San Bernardino to pursue a career in medicine.

If you would like to know more about GSSGC and how to get involved, check out our website at www.gssgc.org or email us at funding@gssgc.org.