Girl Scouts Stands Against Racism and Pledges to Work for a Just Society for All

Leadership. Girl Scouts of the USA is forming a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce at the national board level to help create an organization that works for all girls, including by ensuring that Black, Indigenous, Latina, and all girls of color feel supported, welcomed, and treated with dignity and respect. In addition, we will create a DEI/Racial Justice Steering Committee made up of national staff and Girl Scout council CEOs to help guide and prioritize our work.
Staff. This change starts from within, so Girl Scouts commits to strengthening hiring practices that help us reflect the communities we serve. We will also support and train all Girl Scout staff in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and pursue in earnest the ongoing work of recognizing and challenging our own biases and internalized racism.
Volunteers. The strength of our organization rests among our more than 700,000 dedicated volunteers. We will provide additional resources, training, and support to ensure these champions of girls are equipped to serve all girls equitably.
Most importantly, Girls. All girls’ voices must be heard. We will provide all girls a place where they feel heard, and where they have the resources and support they need to raise their voices and change their corner of the world.

Racial Justice Resources For Parents toggle arrow

Help Your Kids Take Action Against Racism

Support Her As She Stands Up For Change

Teach Her How to Fight Injustice

What Our Country Needs Right Now Is You

This Alum Promotes Anti-Bias in Tech

Talking About Racism and Bias: Resources for Parents and Caregivers

Resources for Talking about Race, Racism and Racialized Violence with Kids

Resources for Learning and Teaching About Antiracism

How to Talk to Your Girl About Scary News

Fighting Xenophobia and Racism During COVID-19

Why Tolerance Isn't Working

Are Your Kids Too Young to Talk About Race?

For more awesome articles visit the Girl Scouts Raising Awesome Girls Blog

For self-education with additional resources for parents/caregivers on "How to Talk about Race:" The National Museum of African American History and Culture

Racial Justice Resources For Girls toggle arrow

The Girl Scout Advocacy Center

This Gold Award Girl Scout is Using Education to Fight Racism

Girl Scouts at Home National Programs

Girl Scouts of Central Maryland Racial Justice Patch Program

A Message to Our Young Friends

Grades K-5

Step Up, Stand UP, and Get Involved

Take a Stand: A Guide for Kids Who Are Ready to Change the World

Middle School

Step Up, Stand Up, and Get Involved

Share Your Passion: A Guide for Tweens Who Are Ready to Change the World

High School

Step Up, Stand Up, and Get Involved

Join the Movement: A Guide For Teens Who are Ready to Change the World

A Message From CEO, Kim E. Fraites-Dow toggle arrow

Dear GSEP Community:

This weekend we saw a massive collective response to systemic racism; I am not an expert but I do want to acknowledge these events and that we can, and must, talk about these issues and figure out together what we can do to be a part of the solution.

As you know the vision for Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania is to be known as the premier leadership organization for girls that is driven by an engaged community of volunteers, members, alumnae, partners, and staff, and supported by an organizational culture of service, learning, and growth. Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Our girls are compelled to act as empathetic problem-solvers, to introduce innovation where they see injustice. Girls are encouraged to discover more about themselves, connect with others and value the power of diversity, and to take action to make our world a better place.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Chris Cooper - these names (plus so many more) and their stories, the racism and xenophobia towards people of color in the news, are painful reminders why we need to learn more about racism and work to become an antiracist organization. In the words of Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist: "We know how to be racist. We know how to pretend to be not racist. Now let's know how to be antiracist."

Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, in the spirit of service, learning, and growth, is committed to do this work. It is our responsibility - being antiracist is essential to our mission to make the world a better place for all people.

Our community, our family of Girl Scouts is very diverse, and everyone is hurting right now. Some of us are hurting because every day of our lives is spent in fear for our families and our children in the realization that some people hold hate in their hearts because we are black. Still others feel guilt and outrage that hate still exists in this country because of the color of someone’s skin. Still others feel scared because our communities are literally burning down. Others are desperate to understand how to help, and how to speak with their children about what is going on. Many of us are just waking up to what we haven’t been doing for years, despite holding no hate in our hearts. Many have a mix of all these emotions and many more. We are in this together. Everyone has a voice. Everyone has feelings. Everyone has a place in Girl Scouts.

The GSEP staff team created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee a couple years ago to help take the work we have started doing on cultural bias and diversity training and make sure it becomes part of the fabric of our organization. We realize, even more through these events, how important this work is…and how much more work we need to do. We will be spending time educating ourselves, sharing resources with our greater GSEP community, e.g., ways to talk with your children about race, training and education resources for volunteers, ways to contribute to causes supporting this work, petitions to sign to make sure our representatives understand what is important to us.

We will be creating a Racial Justice webpage on our website in the coming days where you will find ready to run programs, tools from the Girl Scout Research Institute’s Raising Awesome Girls, older girl service projects that have been based in racial justice, and many more resources for education and advocacy. We will look at the best ways for our GSEP Community to come together to talk about this important work, and hopefully create additional programs, trainings, and resources for all of us.

Thank you for your sisterhood, for your love, and for your dedication to building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.

Yours in Girl Scouting,

Kim

CEO, Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania

Learn More About Racial Justice From These Books toggle arrow

Most Loved in All the World
by Tonya Cherie Hegamin

An authentic and powerful account of slavery and how a handmade quilt helps a little girl leave home for freedom.

Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
by Jonah Winter

An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

20 Picture Books for 2020: Readings to Embrace Race, Provide Solace & Do Good
Embrace Race

Please use these books to help you do the work of making the world a safer, more equitable place for all children.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning
by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

This is NOT a history book.

This is a book about the here and now.

A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.

A book about race.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

Antiracist Baby
by Ibram X. Kendi

With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.

1000 Black Girl Books Resource Guide
compiled by Marley Dias

This resource guide was created in direct response to the multiple requests made by educators, parents and students. Like Marley Dias, so many of you have asked for books with black girls as the main characters. And because of you, we have received thousands of books. Here we are sharing with you the first 1000 titles. We have not yet catalogued all the books. As a small organization with only no full-time staff, our resources are limited. Beginning in April, each month we will provide you with updates of new book titles.

Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!
by Marley Dias

Marley Dias, the powerhouse girl-wonder who started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign, speaks to kids about her passion for making our world a better place, and how to make their dreams come true!

All the Colors of the Earth
by Sheila Hamanaka

Celebrate the colors of children and the colors of love—not black or white or yellow or red, but roaring brown, whispering gold, tinkling pink, and more.

Included in Brightly's list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids, this beautifully illustrated book "celebrates the beauty of diversity to the fullest through engaging, rhyming text," commented Charnaie Gordon in her Brightly review. All the Colors of the Earth "would be a wonderful book to use in multicultural classrooms in schools."