Western Oklahoma needs Girl Scouts! Did you know that:

• Oklahoma’s births to teens ages 15 through 19 ranks at 44, and Oklahoma remains among the worst ten states in the nation?
• About 25% of girls who start high school in Oklahoma do not graduate?
• Oklahoma is in the bottom 10 of best places for women to work and live?
• One in every five (20.2% in 2004) Oklahoma children, more 170,000 lives in poverty? Oklahoma’s poverty rate for children is higher than that for all children in the United States?
• Oklahoma ranks first in the nation (and the world) in its rate of incarceration of women, leaving over 6,000 Oklahoma children to deal with the elevated trauma of having their mother incarcerated?
• On average, 75 young Oklahomans ages 5-24 take their own life each year? Currently, the highest and worst rate (43.9 suicides per 100,000 children and youth ages 5-24) is found in Roger Mills County — a county served by GS-West.
• Oklahoma ranks in the bottom 10 in the nation in both child and teen death rates. In Oklahoma, a young African American is significantly more likely to die of violence than his or her White peer.
• According to the Office of Child Abuse Prevention, child death due to maltreatment is higher than any other state. Nearly 5 out of every 100,000 children in Oklahoma die from abuse or neglect.

The leadership programs of Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma can play an integral role in reversing these negative trends.

This year, GS-West is embarking on a new campaign aimed at developing and encouraging leadership among girls. In some of the counties we serve, we have already seen how encouraging girls to reach higher is making a difference. Through our In-School program, for example, we have brought these self-esteem programs into the classroom during the school day. Among the lessons taught is a program on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) where girls learn to build robots using LEGOs toys. The girls participating in this program have quickly found an interest in the sciences – and one elementary school  group voted on their own to trade two recesses a week for a Girl Scout leadership class.

Building a girls’ self-esteem is a critical component of developing strong leadership skills. We find that girls who have low – and in some cases – no expectations to succeed will have failing grades and soon make poor life choices such as drugs, alcohol abuse and even crime.

During this school year, a GS-West volunteer asked a group of girls to look at themselves in a mirror and tell her what they saw. Girl after girl said she didn’t see much of anything when she looked into the mirror. But after several weeks of self-esteem and leadership programs through Girl Scouts, that self-image transformed. Girls then looked in the mirror and said they saw a girl who has something to offer the world.

When we see that kind of change – not just in one girl, but in hundreds of girls in a single community – we know we will have future filled with young women who will lead the community, run businesses, serve in public office and shape the world of tomorrow.