Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. Girl Scouting addresses critical needs and delivers programs that help girls discover, connect and take action in their communities. Our programs: give girls the tools needed to make sound life choices and become community leaders and advocates; break the cycle of poverty by teaching girls financial literacy and providing exposure to career choices that will lead to financial independence, improve girls health and wellness and prevent childhood obesity; and help girls cope with peer pressure which causes bullying, depression and low self-esteem.

Annually, GSSoAz serves more than 14,000 girls ages 5-17 throughout Southern Arizona including Pima, Cochise, Greenlee, Yuma, Santa Cruz and southern parts of Graham, Maricopa, and Pinal counties. In addition, Girl Scouts also serves our Native American communities, military installations, and border communities in Southern Arizona.

Leadership is the overriding emphasis of all of our program work and is supported by five initiatives: literacy, including financial literacy; environmental education, which includes outdoor education, stewardship and green initiatives; health and wellness, which includes obesity prevention, nutrition education, physical fitness, self-esteem and body image; Science, Technology, Engineering and Match (STEM), which includes astronomy, technology, robotics, physics, and basic math skills; and arts and culture, which gives girls the opportunity to explore culture locally and globally and use art as a vehicle for self-expression.

Of the 14,000 girls we serve, more than 50% are engaged in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience through our Social Justice Program that is fully supported by the council. Through the Social Justice Program we serve: low-income girls who live in resource challenged areas that lack support but have great need for quality programs; girls who live in rural and isolated areas; girls who are in juvenile detention and drug rehabilitation facilities; girls whose mothers are incarcerated; girls with special needs; girls who are in foster group homes; and girls who live in shelters and temporary homes.  We do everything we can and go everywhere we are needed to ensure that all girls everywhere can benefit from our proven leadership development program.   

•There are twin girls participating in a community troop in South Tucson who recently experienced a tragedy that changed their whole lives. While their father was deployed in Iraq their mother committed suicide and the girls were the first to discover her body. Their father returned from Iraq and brought the girls with him from Kentucky to Tucson to live with his mother. The grandmother knew the girls needed counseling, connection and activities so she came back to what she knew, Girl Scouts, and sought help from SGSC. The girls are now connected to sister Girl Scouts in an active troop and in the words of their grandmother “it is the only thing that makes them feel better”. This is what Girl Scouts is all about.

1. One of the girls who participated in Girl Scouts through AJ, our program for girls whose lives have been impacted by the juvenile justice system, Theresa Fraijo (name used with permission), received the 2011 Pima Youth Awareness Award. The recipients are recognized for the positive changes they have made for themselves, their families, and their community.

At first Theresa disliked attending the meetings, but over time became more involved, not just in AJ, but in the Girl Scouts I.T. Nation program. I.T. Girls is a youth development partnership between Pima County Public Library (PCPL) and Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona. IT Girls participate in a paid internship that focuses on 21st Century Skills. IT Girls explore multimedia technologies and then teach IT Nation multimedia computer classes to youth and adults and PCPL branches. Thy also look at controversial issues related to the Internet and youth culture. They teach Internet Safety classes to young girls and work to combat cyber-bullying. 

Theresa has been very active with the IT Girls since the spring of 2010. She has taught IT Nation classes at three different PCPL branches. She presented the IT Girls program with PCPL and Girl Scout staff at the 2010 AzLA Annual Conference. She has also been invited to intern at the Eller College of Management’s 2011 technology summer camp for youth.

“Working with I.T. Nation and Girl Scouts has helped me to learn how to be more responsible. While I was teaching computer classes, the students relied on me to be there on time and to know what I was teaching. My students depended on me. With their expectations of me, they taught me how to be responsible.”