Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Critical Issues

Girls tell us that just as peer friendships can sometimes be difficult, romance can be hard, too.  Friendships, after all, are the training wheels for the romantic love we each aspire to. In a girl's drive to be connected to their friends and romantic partners, girls often struggle with personal boundaries.

 

Girls are bombarded with the constant flow of media messages. The messages are highly sexualized and hyped by pop celebrities in a pop culture.  Without the guidance of caring adults, girls lack the ability to put these sexualized images they are exposed to, into the context of a loving and caring relationship.

The Affection Connection program is designed to help girls recognize and understand the positive expectations, behaviors and feelings involved in healthy, loving, romantic behaviors.  By understanding how girls treat each another in the context of a friendship, girls can begin to explore and understand their acceptance of behaviors in a dating or romantic relationship. 

Program activities explore possessiveness, intimidation, feeling powerful or powerless, jealousy, changing oneself to please someone else, insults versus ways to negotiate lovingly, judging compatibility and camaraderie, achieving trust, compassion and honesty.

The Affection Connection was created by Margaret Sagarese, parenting expert and co-author of Boy Crazy! Keeping Your Daughter's Feet on the Ground When Her Head is in the Clouds.  This program is suitable for girls in grades 4 through 12 and begins the conversation of healthy "romantic" relationships. 

The four program themes look at:

  • FEELINGS and the intense emotions that come with friendships and crushes in the tween and teen years.
  • EXPECTATIONS AND ROLES in a healthy romantic relationship.  Am I the kind of girl boys will fall in love with?
  • BEHAVIORS which belong and don't belong in friendships and romantic relationships.
  • YOU!  In Love and Your Decisions.  When you're loveable, crushable and eager to find the love that you want.

Contact Carole Aksak for more information about this program.

 

Image of Affection Connection patch

 

Special Introductory Offer

Download the Affection Connection Program for $20 and receive:

  • Facilitator Guide
  • Girl Scout Junior activities (grades 4 & 5)
  • Girl Scout Cadette activities (for middle school girls)
  • Girl Scout Senior and Girl Scout Ambassador activities (for high school girls)

Using the Facilitator Guide with different program levels allows you to customize each troop's activities and experience.

Order patches (shown above) $1.50 apiece

 

Girl Scouts of the USA recently commissioned a survey to determine what girls nationwide were saying about the alleged incident between pop singers Chris Brown and his girlfriend, Rihanna, on February 8, 2009. Having discussed the incident with girls and reviewed the treatment of it in the media, including on episodes of Oprah and the Tyra Banks Show, Girl Scouts of the USA sought to ensure that girls’ responses were accurately represented and to stress the importance of self-esteem among girls.

Conducted online by the Buzz Marketing Group, the survey revealed that 95 percent of girls who responded say Chris Brown’s alleged actions are not acceptable or justifiable for any reason, and 48 percent believe that low self-esteem will be the primary reason for Rihanna getting back with Chris Brown.

The media attention surrounding this incident is an opportunity to engage adults and girls in discussions about self-esteem and healthy relationships. An important outcome of The Girl Scout Leadership Experience is to empower girls with a strong sense of self and critical thinking skills to tackle issues such as low self-esteem.