State of the Girl.
From the desk of GSSNE CEO, Dana Borrelli-Murray:
I’m going to start with a confession. Three years ago, I received a phone call from a recruiter about the CEO position at Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England. I told the recruiter that I wasn’t interested— because I was never a Girl Scout, and I didn’t understand the relevance of the Girl Scouts in the 21st century.
They told me to come and say that to the hiring committee.
So I did. And over the course of interviews, conversations, and research— I found myself falling in love. That I had it all wrong. That this 113-year-old organization dedicated to girls was not only relevant—but radical. That merely the concept of creating a sisterhood in the 1910s, where girls could lead, and grow, and learn, and form friendships and most importantly, find joy—did you know that the very first Girl Scout troops were comprised of girls working in factories in Georgia?—that this act of centering on girls was revolutionary.
Boy, I had no idea how revolutionary this was going to feel, or become, in 2025.
Last week, the list of “flagged” words for NIH funding per Executive Orders started including “women”, “female”, “historically”, “male-dominated”, and “disabled.” Being historically accurate, we were founded in 1912 by a single, disabled woman who could not access her own funds during male-dominated divorce proceedings. Yikes. Kinda hard to tell our founding story now. Could an organization as apple-pie, patriotic, and congressionally chartered (literally… by Congress in 1950) suddenly become an enemy of the state, cookies and all?
Like my initial disinterest in the Movement, based on misperceptions, maybe there’s never been a better time to dispel myths and redefine ourselves. Maybe we are not at all what we appear on the outside. Maybe as a girl-serving organization, we’ve been diminished and patronized one too many times. Maybe we are tired of holding our heads up and consistently doing great work with less. It’s true—less than 2% of charitable giving is dedicated to women and girl-serving organizations.
Next month, GSUSA will issue a multiyear strategic plan, built in collaboration with local Council leadership and grounded in research and data. This plan acts as a guiding theory of action across the Movement—a strong statement considering the many ways in which girls are caught in the crosshairs of our fractured country.
This past year, we embarked on a new collaborative effort with local women and girl-serving organizations to compile and publish the first-ever Rhode Island Girls Report. Our goal is to showcase the realities girls face in our region to drive a data-driven coalition for action to improve support and overall conditions for girls.
It’s amazing what a handful of women leaders, publicly accessible data, writing skills, and some pocket lint can get ya.
Our findings?
- Rates of physical and sexual dating violence are growing, with 17.7% of girls reporting firsthand experience.
- Girl rates of school absence are 1.5 to 1.7 times higher than boys. A lot of this discrepancy has been linked to monthly menstruation and access to affordable period care.
- While 64% of 11th-grade girls reported having a strong adult they could talk to, middle school girls are two times more likely than boys to feel prolonged sadness, plan and attempt suicide.
- Over 18% of our state’s girls live below the poverty line, and almost 23% have experienced at least one marker of childhood trauma (abuse, neglect, household dysfunction)
We are one of a handful of states with a newly minted Girls Report. The reports are meant to be a snapshot of where we are and where we need to go to serve our leaders of tomorrow.
I hope the RI Girls Report connects deeply and meaningfully with you.
- For our parents and caregivers, we hope this work sparks conversations and dialogue in your home.
- For our local community organizations and schools, we hope this work supports and validates what you see each day on the front lines.
- For our legislative body and others in roles of influence and power, we hope you take this report to guide your own education, your investments, and your decisions.
At Girl Scouts, this feels like our moment. We are equipped to become the antidote. But first, we need to reintroduce ourselves. Across the country—and in our own Council geography—we continue to stave off depictions of being benign—wholesome and adventurous, and out of alignment with today’s needs. And if I’ve learned anything in the last three years, it’s that this portrayal is far from our truth.
We know that our future must align with diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. (I said it! The horror!) This means being an organization that has removed systemic barriers to participation so all feel central to the Movement. So far this year alone, we have engaged over 600 new Girl Scouts in communities historically underserved or overlooked by the Movement. We actively fundraise each day to ensure that the Girl Scout Leadership Experience is available in its fullest to youth whether in Coventry or Central Falls, Westerly or Woonsocket. Even now, when I am being asked to strip those words and ideals from grant applications or funder conversations.
In closing, I have some wish list items:
- Today and always, prioritize our girls. Make sure we tell them that they bring a lot to the table and they can act like it.
- Shrinking vocabulary and dialogue at the federal level does not mean that girls and women have to shrink themselves for others
- I say this all the time because I really mean it: we could double the number of Girl Scouts we serve tomorrow if we had more volunteers…hint hint!
- As our founder Juliette Gordon Low once said "The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers.” So today, let’s center our work on our youth to ensure an inclusive, dynamic, and thriving future for all.
