Girls all over England and Wales are invited to embark upon the GFS National Challenge. The National Challenge is a series of nine fun challenges to be completed by Easter 2020 that will give the girls and young women at your group the chance to feel that they are a part of the GFS community.
Taking part in the National Challenge can help girls make new friends, feel the satisfaction of working towards and achieving a goal and try new things.
Here’s how it works
Sign up
We need group leaders to let us know that your group will be taking part, and how many girls you have that will be aiming to complete challenges. We’ll send you a Challenge Pack for with all of the details, and a Personal Record Card for each girl taking part.
To sign up, just email leigh@girlsfriendlysociety.org.uk by 10 September.
Challenge yourselves
There are six challenges to be completed as a group – one that explores each strand of the GFS programme. There are also three individual challenges that girls complete for themselves.
Group Challenges
- Get active: try a sport where girls and women are underrepresented. The more outside the box, there more exciting – think rugby, golf, or even jiu jitsu like the Suffragettes.
- Be creative: create a piece of visual art around the theme of ‘branching out and growing roots’. This could be any medium, from photography to sculpture, or painting to graffiti.
- My community: take action about an issue in your community that your girls and young women feel strongly about. Maybe they are passionate about period poverty, eager to help the environment, or committed to saving a local cinema – whatever it is, it’s time to speak up.
- Happy to be me: body image has long been a stand out issue amongst girls and young women. Challenge your girls to see themselves differently, by diving into the resources provided by the Dove Self-Esteem Project.
- Have fun: it’s time for the girls to get their organiser hats on and plan a group trip together. This challenge encourages teamwork, and results in a fun day out! Don’t forget, you can apply for a grant to help fund the trip.
- Skills for life: this year, for International Day of the Girl, we want to make sure girls and young women’s voices are being heard by helping them explore the world of media. Take part in the IDG activities outlined in the winter term pack.
Individual challenges
- Girls will love making themselves a crown to wear at your region’s National Challenge celebration day – for the GFS parade of queens. If your region is not holding a Celebration Day then this can take place in your group.
- Encourage girls to become their own shero by designing themselves as a superhero girl.
- We’re giving girls room to express themselves, by writing a poem/spoken word piece/song about what it means to be a girl in your area.
Funding the National Challenge
To complete the challenges some groups will need to bring in external expertise, for example for trying new sports and also the creative activities. We encourage Regional Committees to apply for funds to pay for these activities as part of their annual budget (due on 16 August). Funds can also be sought to pay for a Regional Celebration Day, bringing groups and girls together to celebrate what they have achieved. Your RDC will be supporting your Regional Committee to organise this.
Keeping track of your achievements
Your group will need to keep a record of the amazing things your girls and young women are getting up to. Alongside the Personal Record Card (for each participating girl) which will come as part of the welcome pack, we also want you to take pictures and videos as you are completing your challenges. Suggestions for recording the girls work include:
- Scrapbooks
- Exhibition boards
- Posters
- Presentations
All of which can be showcased at the Regional Celebration Day.
We encourage you to invite parents and carers to see the girls’ work during one of your sessions, which could also be organised as a small fundraising event.
Throughout the challenge there will also be Facebook group where leaders can share ideas and show all the exciting things your girls are getting up to.
We hope you will celebrate all of your girl’s achievements by organising a Regional Celebration Day. Help and support is available for Regional Committees from your RDC. The GFS National Challenge is all about being part of something together and trying new things – not about completing all of the challenges or competing. That’s why we want to celebrate all involvement with the National Challenge.
Celebrate
In January please complete the order form for the exclusive GFS National Challenge bracelet. For every challenge a girl takes part in, they earn an achievement bead for their bracelet. By the end, some girls will have nine beads, and others will have fewer, but everyone will have an awesome GFS bracelet to remind them of what they’ve achieved. The cost of this is £2.50 per girl which can be either fundraised, or paid from subs. We will send details of how to order the bracelet in your Challenge Pack.
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