Every Girl Needs A Friend: Our Partnership with Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana

Halfway up the climbing wall, one girl froze. Her hands locked on the holds, her feet stopped moving, and for a second, she looked like she might not make it to the top. Then from the ground, her Girl Scout troop started cheering. Feeling encouraged, she started climbing again, reaching the top thanks to the support to her friends.

It's a small moment. But for a young girl in foster care, having a dozen people in her corner, cheering for her by name, is not small at all.

For many young people in foster care, trust doesn't come easily. It's been broken too many times by circumstances no child should have to carry. That's why, at One Family Illinois, we believe that healing happens through consistent, caring relationships, the kind that show a child, again and again, that they matter.

It's also why at One Family Illinois we're proud of our growing partnership with Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana (GCNWI).

Girl Scouts has spent more than a century helping girls discover who they are and who they want to become. Today, the program serves girls from kindergarten through twelfth grade, offering age-appropriate opportunities to explore the outdoors, try new skills, earn badges, lead community projects, and build lasting friendships. At its core, it's a safe space to take a risk, get it a little wrong, try again, and grow more confident every step of the way.

For girls in foster care, having a safe space means even more. Research shows a child typically needs several steady, trustworthy adults in their life that they admire to make it successfully into adulthood. But for children who have experienced trauma, the number of mentors that's needed only grows. Girl Scouts helps fill that circle with female mentors who show up week after week for the youth in our care.

"These are kids who are used to being forgotten," said One Family Illinois Education & Enrichment Specialist at Chicago Village. "Girl Scouts shows them that there are people who want to work with you and really want to help you."

Trust, she explained, is something many of our kids have learned not to expect.

"I think that's the best thing coming into Girl Scouts… they see that people can be consistent and it shows them something different than they are used to."

That consistency is what turns an after-school meeting into something bigger. It's why the girls at the bottom of the climbing wall didn't just watch their friend freeze, they cheered until she moved again.

"I think the impact of Girl Scouts is very clear. It gives them a chance to be a kid," says Emily Brown, Education and Family Enrichment Manager. "They get to try new things and go to places they didn't even know existed. And it gives them a chance to see role models every single day."

At One Family Illinois, our mission is to ensure every child in our care has the stability, support, and belonging they need to thrive. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana shares that same commitment, one troop meeting at a time.

For more information about One Family Illinois, contact Communications Director Kathy Wolf at kwolf@onefamilyillinois.org.