The Silver Award is the second highest award of the Girl Scouts of the USA, and one of the highest awards that a Girl Scout Cadette can earn.
The Silver Award was first introduced in 1980 at the National Program Conferences, launching alongside the updated Gold Award. Requirements for the Silver Award, the Gold Award, and the new Cadette and Senior badges were first found in the book "You Make the Difference: Handbook for Cadette and Senior Girl Scouts," published in June 1980. [1] [2]
A girl must be in 6th, 7th or 8th grade (or equivalent), be a registered Girl Scout Cadette, and have completed a Cadette Journey before she can begin work on a Silver Award project.
There are currently seven Cadette Journey programs to choose from. All badges in the Journey must be earned for the Journey to be complete.
The Silver Award Project can be done as an individual or as a small group (2-4). Each Girl Scout is expected to contribute 50 hours to the project. The project is to be girl-led, but adults can advise and assist when necessary. Although the general guidelines have been established by GSUSA, it is important to check with the local Council on exact procedure.
The approval process varies by council. Before beginning work on a Take Action Project or a Silver Project, it is important to check with the local council.
Scouting in Kentucky has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. Kentucky has a very early Scouting heritage, as the home state of Daniel Carter Beard.
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over 2.5 million youth.
Advancement and recognition in the Boy Scouts of America is a tradition dating from the inception of the Scouting movement. A fundamental purpose of advancement is the self-confidence a young man or woman acquires from his participation in Scouting. Advancement is one of the methods used in the "Aims and Methods of Scouting"– character development, citizenship training and personal fitness.
Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA), commonly referred to as simply Girl Scouts, is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. Founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912, it was organized after Low met Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, in 1911. Upon returning to Savannah, Georgia, she telephoned a distant cousin, saying, "I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!"
Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts in the United States to raise funds to support Girl Scout councils and individual troops. The cookies are widely popular and are commonly sold by going door-to-door, online, through school or town fundraisers, or at "cookie booths" set up at storefronts. The program is intended to both raise money and improve the financial literacy of girls. During an average selling season, more than one million girls sell over 200 million packages of cookies and raise over $800 million. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917. Cookie sales are organized by 112 regional Girl Scout councils who select one of two national bakeries to buy cookies from.
The Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA, earned by Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts. Only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award.
The Wing Scout Program was a popular older girl Girl Scout program begun in 1941 for girls "interested in flying and wanting to learn enough about aviation to serve their country."
The Bronze Award is the third highest award in Girl Scouts of the USA. It was introduced by GSUSA in 2001, and can only be earned by Girl Scouts at the Junior level.
The uniform and insignia of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) gives a Scout visibility and creates a level of identity within both the unit and the community. The uniform is used to promote equality while showing individual achievement. While all uniforms are similar in basic design, they do vary in color and detail to identify the different membership divisions of Cub Scouting, Scouts BSA and Venturing. Many people collect BSA insignia such as camporee and jamboree emblems, council shoulder strips and historical badges.
The American Heritage Girls (AHG) is a Christian-based Scouting-like organization for Americans. The organization has more than 52,000 members (2020) with troops or individuals ("trailblazers") in all 50 states of the United States and for American expatriates in fifteen other countries.
Girl Guides of Canada is the national Guiding association of Canada. Guiding in Canada started on September 7, 1910, and GGC was among the founding members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) in 1928.
Studio 2B was a level of Girl Scouting in the Girl Scouts of the USA and consisted of girls between the ages of 11 through 17. GSUSA created the program to attract older girls into the scouting program and replace Cadette and Senior Girl Scouting.
Religious emblems programs also called religious recognition programs are awards set up by some religious organizations for members of various youth organizations.
An Interest Project was an earned award for the Cadette and Senior levels of Girl Scouts of the USA. In the Fall of 2011, a new program was introduced and Interest Projects were retired.
The Girl Scouts of the USA has six levels: Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior and Ambassador. Girl Scouts move or "bridge" to the next level, usually at the end of the school year, when they reach the age of advancing. The Ambassador level is the most recent, having been added in 2011. They are considered in the appropriate level based on their grade on October 1, the start of each new Girl Scout year. There are exceptions for "special needs," but Girl Scouts who are "young in grade" have not been specifically considered. Each year of membership in Girl Scouting is represented on the uniform by a small, golden, six-pointed membership star with colored background discs which represent a level. Girl Scouts wear uniforms consisting of a white shirt and khaki bottom under the appropriate uniform item for their level: a blue tunic or vest for Daisies, a brown sash or vest for Brownies, a green vest or sash for Juniors and a tan sash or vest for the older girl levels of Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors. All uniform tunics, vests, or sashes must include the American flag patch, council ID patches troop numbers, and a yellow, brown, green, or navy tab with the WAGGGS pin and the membership pin.
Cub Scouts is the section of Scouts Australia for boys and girls aged 8 to 11 (inclusive), often known simply as 'Cubs'. The Cub Scout section follows after Joey Scouts and is before Scouts. Cub Scouts wear a uniform shirt with navy blue panels, and yellow shoulders.
Girl Scout Destinations, formerly Wider Opportunities or Wider Ops, are events for individual Girl Scouts hosted by GSUSA or individual Girl Scout councils. Most Destinations are held within the United States, though each year there are trips abroad, such as to allow participants to be part of the US delegation to another country's national jamboree, or a World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) World Centre. They can range from two days to three weeks long. Most events are geared toward specified grade levels: Girl Scout Cadettes, Girl Scout Seniors, or Girl Scout Ambassadors. Girls must go through an application process and sometimes an interview process before being chosen for a Destination.
The William T. Hornaday Awards were a series of awards presented by the Boy Scouts of America for service in conservation and ecology. The program is designed to encourage learning about natural resource conservation and the environment, teach sound stewardship of the natural resources and the environment, and recognize those who are outstanding in this field. Considered to be the highest service award a youth could earn in the Boy Scouts, it was a rare and highly prized medal, with only 1,200 medals being awarded in its more than 100 year history. In an effort to distance itself from the controversial history of Dr. Hornaday, the Boy Scouts of America formally retired the William T. Hornaday awards in October of 2020, creating the Distinguished Conservation Service Award in its place.
Youth organizations in the United States are of many different types. The largest is the government run 4-H program, followed by the federally chartered but private Scouting movement groups: the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA). Another somewhat smaller but co-ed Scouting derived group is Camp Fire. Other youth groups are religious youth ministries such as the evangelical Christian Awana, Seventh-day Adventist Pathfinders, and Assemblies of God Royal Rangers.
The Venturing Summit is the highest rank for youth in the Venturing program of the Boy Scouts of America. It requires Venturers to earn the Pathfinder Rank, participate in adventures, and demonstrate leadership, service and personal growth.