Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma

PROJECT PURPOSE

Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma (GSWESTOK) has a residential camp located in Marlow that hosts specialty day camps, overnight camps, leadership camps, horse camps, family and weekend camps, and other outdoor adventure programming for Girl Scouts throughout our 39-county service area. The camp was founded over 50 years ago and is used by more than 1,000 girls and adult volunteers each year. Due to our significant drop in membership resulting from Covid, we had to reallocate significant resources to recruitment. Funds typically dedicated to maintenance, repairs, and upgrades to Camp E-Ko-Wah were set aside. The campsite, which is located on Lake Fuqua, includes canoes, horse stables, twelve cabins, seven treehouses that are used as bunkrooms, health center, dining hall, storm shelter, sports court, archery range, hiking trails, and long house for indoor programming. Many of the structures need serious repairs and upgrades, and therefore, we desperately need financial assistance if we are going to give the campers the safe and fun outdoor experience they have come to expect.

EVIDENCE

Our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. We have identified three keys to leadership: girls Discover themselves and their values; Connect with others; and Take Action to make the world a better place. Programming focuses on outcomes that help girls gain specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors, and values. They work together with the three keys to leadership; combined, they make up the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE).

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Girl Scouts is open to all girls ages 5-17 and we aspire to reach girls in underserved communities. 67% of our members live at or below the poverty line. Most of the girls we serve live in households that make less than $35,000 per year. Given that, GSWESTOK raises resources to offset the membership fees and uniform costs when possible. We want to ensure that ALL girls can be a part of Girl Scouts, regardless of their income level. The pandemic severely impacted GSWESTOK throughout our 39-county service area. Since the onset of the pandemic, girl membership has dropped by 70%. We are at risk of a "lost class of Girl Scouts" because GSWESTOK was prevented from in-person recruitment of girls who entered kindergarten in fall 2020. Most girls begin their Girl Scout journey as kindergarteners and that is also the year when we have the most success recruiting adult volunteers and forming new troops. We made some progress in membership recruitment in 2021 and have set an ambitious goal to return Council membership to pre-pandemic level of 11,500 total members?8,000 girls and 3,500 adults by the end of 2023.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

GSWESTOK collects data from camp attendees during the registration process and conducts surveys at the conclusion of camp. We use the survey results to measure performance and make adjustments to programming and the camp experience as necessary.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma