Girl Scout Silver and Gold Awards
Girl Scouts have the opportunity to achieve the highest honor possible in Girl Scouting. This honor signifies that you have put forth an enormous amount of effort, determination, and commitment into your community and that you care about what happens around you.
Silver Award Gold Award
The Girl Scout Silver Award:
This is the highest award Girl Scouts ages 11-14 (grades 6-10) can achieve. It recognizes your efforts in a range of Girl Scout and community experiences as well as your commitment to working to better your life and the lives of others.
The first four requirements of the award ask you to build your skills, explore career possibilities, increase your leadership skills, and make a commitment to improving yourself. You can do Steps 2-4 in any order or even work on them simultaneously, but they must be completed prior to the fifth requirement, the Girl Scout Silver Award Project. You should work closely with your adult adviser in the completion of all the requirements.
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| Troop 691 worked together to build a ramp which allows a woman access in and out of her home. |
Review
Safety-Wise and council guidelines on activities you can participate in as a Girl Scout, particularly those related to fund raising. If you plan to work with other girls on Silver Award activities, remember that each girl must have specific responsibilities that allow her to learn and grow. The project should be large enough for each girl to spend as much time and effort as a girl who works alone on her project. Requirements begun prior to being a registered Girl Scout ages 11-14 may not be applied to this award. Girls in grades 6-10 may work toward the Silver Award and must be in grades 7-10 to do the actual service project. (Girls must complete STEPS 5 and 6 by age 14 or before the start of the 10th grade.)
Requirements
- Learn about the award requirements and meet with an advisor.
- Earn the Girl Scout Silver Leadership Award.
- Earn the Girl Scout Silver Career Award.
- Earn the Girl Scout 4 B Challenge. This step helps girls find out about the issues they acre about.
- Design and carry out a Girl Scout Silver Award project. Girls make a difference in their communities by spending at least 40 hours "planning and doing."
- Reflect on how earning the Girl Scout Silver Award changed them and impacted others.
The Girl Scout Silver Award Project
This project builds upon your accomplishments in Girl Scouting and represents your personal action plan for helping others. The project could be done in or outside of Girl Scouting and must reflect some aspect of community service. If the project is done within Girl Scouting, you must reach out to the community in some way—for example, by calling on people outside Girl Scouts as resources, doing something that reaches girls who are not Girl Scouts, or affecting something that is used by people other than just Girl Scouts.
The Silver Award project has five steps. Your project, including planning and execution, should take a minimum of 40 hours. The actual implementation of the project should take from 7 to 10 hours. Obtain a copy of the Girl Scout Silver Award Report Form from your council office to keep a record of your Silver Award work. Fill it out completely and keep a copy for yourself and give the other to your adviser.
Review Safety-Wise for guidelines. You should work with your Girl Scout council on any project that will impact Girl Scouting or Girl Scout property. As with any other project, you must have approval if you plan to raise funds or solicit donations.
The following steps will help you organize and carry out the Girl Scout Silver Award project:
- STEP 1: Decide which values, experience, and skills you would like to put into action through the Silver Award project.
- STEP 2: Decide on a project that will use your personal strengths and interests to help others. You can work with your school, the community, a religious group, or Girl Scouting. (See "Sample Girl Scout Silver Award Projects below.)
- STEP 3: Identify the people with whom you will work: those who will help and guide you, those who will work with you, those whom you hope to help. Be sure to include a Girl Scout leader or another adult from your council.
- STEP 4: Create a timeline and a budget, if necessary. If you work with a group, divide jobs and set up a way to ensure that everyone is on track.
- STEP 5: Carry out your plan. This final step of your project should total at least seven hours. This may be done all on one day or divided into segments. When you have completed your project, write a brief evaluation. Share the evaluation with your adviser and council representative.
Silver Award Documents
Sample Girl Scout Silver Award Projects
- A Girl Scout troop planned a weeklong literacy celebration at their local library. They arranged for local celebrities to host story hours, held a panel discussion of teen books, and put on a play that featured favorite book characters.
- A Girl Scout decided the camp library needed updating. She made a list of books and games needed and asked each troop in her service unit to contribute an item on her list. She then catalogued the items and devised a checkout system.
- Six Girl Scouts coordinated an effort to help their local food pantry restock its shelves after a community crisis. They designed posters and fliers to promote the effort and got supermarkets and theaters to help sponsor the "can-a-thon." The girls decorated "donation barrels" from the local moving company and worked with the fire department to arrange food pick-ups.
- A Girl Scout troop wrote and put on a play about self-esteem for girls in low-income housing areas.
- A Girl Scout campaigned to get a traffic light installed at a busy intersection in her community. Her work entailed researching accidents, gathering testimony from residents and police, circulating a petition, and attending city council meetings.
- Troop 691 worked together to build a ramp which allows a woman access in and out of her home.
- One Girl Scout coordinated an Easter Egg Hunt for her community. She made sure that there were prizes for each age level.
Silver Award Classes
STRIVING FOR THE SILVER is an action-packed workshop for Girl Scouts who are thinking about or are working on the Silver Award. We will explore what’s involved; why do it; making a plan; getting started; making it fun and fitting it in; tracking your progress; and putting together a project that’s right for you and all your own. Ask your Leader about registering. Girls who have chosen their Silver Award Project should not attend. This class is usually available twice each year. Check out the Calendars page to see specific dates.
NOTE: You can also find information on the Girl Scout Silver Award and its updated requirements on the national Girl Scouts of the USA website.
The Girl Scout Gold Award:
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting. The Gold Award can open doors to college scholarships, community awards, internships and other opportunities. Most of all, earning the Gold Award is an opportunity for you to stretch yourself and find out just how much you are capable of accomplishing. Earning the Gold Award is an accomplishment that you can take pride in for your entire life. Any registered Girl Scout ages 14-18 (grades 9-12) who is willing to make the commitment of time and effort required to complete the five requirements can earn the Gold Award.
Helpful Hints for the Gold Award (full document, including application)
Microsoft Word Version (can be completed on your computer)
Or, jump to a specific section within the seven steps:
- STEP 1: Organize, p. 3-4
- STEP 2: Lead (Girl Scout Gold Leadership Award), p. 12-13, 27
- STEP 3: Network (Girl Scout Gold Career Award), p. 14, 29
- STEP 4: Explore (Girl Scout Gold 4Bs Challenge), p. 14-19
- STEP 5: Create (Create a Project Plan), p. 8-9, 20-21 *
* Application (please use this Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana application and NOT the one from GSUSA), 23-25, 31, 33-34,.
(or Microsoft Word version, which can be completed on your computer)
Please note that the Project Proposal and Gold Award application are the same document.
- STEP 6: Do the Gold Award Project
- STEP 7: Reflect (Gold Award Final Report, to be mailed when project is approved), p. 22
- The Girl Scout Gold Award Final Report (or Microsoft Word version)
- FAQs, p. 5-7
- Young Women of Distinction Gold Award Projects, p. 10
- Gold Award Projects in our council
Gold Award Training
Going for the Gold training is offered in each service center. Contact your service center office or check the council calendar for more information. If you are unable to attend the scheduled training, you may request a training by completing Resource Sheet #38 (Microsoft Word | PDF). You will find that attending Gold Award training will help you understand the requirements and make reaching your goal much easier.
For additional information on Silver and Gold Awards, please contact Terri Tock at the council office, 502-636-0900 ext. 229 or 888-771-5170.
Project Plan Approval
May be submitted anytime by mail to the council office. Expect 4-6 weeks for a response. Response time is faster when reviewed at committee meetings.
Final Project Approval Deadlines
Gold Award Mentoring Committee meets after these deadlines*:
- September 15 (final deadline for girls who have graduated the previous spring)
- November 1 (deadline for 12th grade girls planning to apply for the UofL Trustees Scholarship)
- March 15 (deadline for presentation at spring awards ceremonies)
* ONLY TIME A FINAL CAN BE APPROVED