Overview:

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) is open to all girls in grades K5-12, from all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic background, in Kenosha County. A girl is never turned away due to an inability to pay for membership and we pride ourselves on doing our best to remove financial obstacles for any family in need. Our only eligibility criteria is that a child must identify as a girl and be of school age (up to 12th grade). In Kenosha County, GSWISE also provides a Community Outreach Promise Program to girls in socioeconomically challenged communities.

Outcomes:

The Girl Scout Promise, "to help other people at all times,” was especially apparent in projects completed last year by two Kenosha County Girl Scouts.

Girl Scout Cadette Elsa organized a drive that allowed her and a Girl Scout partner to assemble and distribute 168 “Bags of Bravery and Beauty” to girls in foster care and young women in homeless shelters. Elsa received recognition as the top Middle Level Youth Volunteer for the entire state of Wisconsin in the 2020 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring volunteerism, for this effort.

Girl Scout Ambassador Carly, recently completed a Gold Award, the highest honor a girl can earn, with a project that addressed the challenges young readers face when they don’t have a variety of interesting books to choose. Carly created an inclusive, welcoming book room at Edward Bain School of Language and Art in Kenosha. She collected thousands of books and organized them on bookshelves labeled by reading level and language. She trained 30 school faculty members to use the book room with their students and the community. Carly teamed up with the school to hand out free books to families at open houses and held multiple events, including a “Reading by the Light” literacy night for the community. She also advocated for the importance of reading daily for 20 minutes and incorporated a reading challenge.

Overview:

Juvenile Crisis is an immediate access center to 24/7 mental health crisis stabilization and after hours/holiday child protection for families in Kenosha. Services are delivered through phone and face-to-face contact in homes, hospitals, schools, at the Crisis Prevention Center, and anywhere else where there is a need. We ensure child safety during suicide assessment, domestic violence, overdose, runaway, and family conflict. Workers assess needs, make referrals and follow-up to encourage engagement. We provide around-the-clock services to our community so that people in Kenosha County are aware that we are here for them to assist in mental health crises, safety concerns, family discord and general needs assessments.

Outcomes:

Funds from United Way of Kenosha County supplement the Juvenile Crisis unit to be able provide an immediate response to the community, schools, law enforcement and local hospital calls when children and families are in crisis, specifically helping to be able to provide 24-hour coverage. Without United Way funding, the Juvenile Crisis service might be at a reduced level which could diminish the quality of family services in Kenosha, including long wait times for a response, inability for timely follow-up calls, further escalation in the crisis situation and a negative impact on the child welfare and crisis stabilization system.