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Project Details
Created:
11/10/2008
Project Title:
Granola Girls
Project Category:
Health
Project Status:
Proposal
CASE Competition
CASE Competition:
Ohio Campus Compact - Ohio Campus Compact
Grant Winner
Project Snapshot
Problem:
Solution:
Student Information
College or University:
Otterbein College
State:
Ohio
Student Name:
Danielle Fabian
Year in College:
Sophomore
Major:
Nursing
Faculty Advisor
Advisor Name:
Community Partner
Partner Name:
Diana Lee
Student and Community
What societal problem does your project solve?
What would be the measurable outcomes of the partnership that you propose to create between the community and your educational institution?
How would you, with the support of your faculty advisor on campus and some one from the community, work together around this specified community issue?
How would you envision sharing power and decision making in the partnership? In other words, instead of doing something for the community how would you do something with the community?
How would you collect data on what the project was doing and use it in the decision making process?
What would be the project activities? Give examples of how the strengths already existing in the community will be acknowledged, built upon, and enhanced in the partnership to solve the problem.
What obstacles or challenges might you encounter in implementing your project, and how would you address them?
Recruiting Volunteers:
Would you recruit additional student volunteers? If so, how?
Enlisting Partners:
Do you envision enlisting businesses, or other organizations, etc., to help; if so, how?
How would the award money be used here?
If your project idea is an innovation of an existing
program, what are its current funding sources?
What do you anticipate learning from engaging in the service project?
If the above questions have not enabled you to convey the essence and value of your project’s impact, use this space to supplement your answers.
Please submit an abstract (clear summary) of your proposed project idea.
Troop 1847 is a group of Otterbein volunteers that works with the Bonds Beyond Bars Girl Scout Troop as well as a Latina Girl Scouts Troop. Troop 1847 volunteers mentor the Girl Scouts, who range in age from 6 to 13 years old, in order to become positive influences in their lives. Topics that guide the Girl Scouts’ visits to Otterbein College include goal setting, self-esteem, decision making, careers, and reasons for staying in school. Educational programs such as recycling and information on college and Otterbein are also topics that have been explored. In order to implement the Girl Scout and Troop 1847 sessions, close collaboration with the Community Partner, Diana Lee-Leader of the Bonds Beyond Bars Troop, is needed. Times, locations, special activities three times a year, and financial obligations are discussed and planned out. Goals are set as to what will be covered at each session. The effectiveness of the program is evaluated and reflected upon afterward by all constituents. For example, Otterbein College hosted a recycling education day last January with the Girl Scouts. An environmentally active student speaker was brought in to talk to the Girl Scouts and educate them on how and what to recycle in their homes. The Girl Scouts were very involved in the group discussion and then created educational messages about recycling on brown-paper grocery bags that were distributed back to the local grocery store and to the community. The goals of understanding recycling, learning how to implement it into their lives, and then educating the community were all thus accomplished. The Girl Scouts and Diana Lee worked together with the Otterbein volunteers to accomplish all of these goals in the session bringing out the strengths of each group. Furthermore, this past week the Girl Scouts and Otterbein volunteers went to a pumpkin patch for a special fall activity. Prior to the event, all collaborators decided how to distribute resources and responsibilities equally. Afterwards, Otterbein volunteers reflected on their first experience of the school year with the Girl Scouts and the Girl Scouts sent their thoughts in a Thank You card. The skills of delegation, compromise, and collaboration were used to once again achieve a successful outing.Two key challenges for the partnership were lack of communication and diverse philosophies. The ability to communicate regularly with the troop leader was slightly troublesome for this partnership. A lack of regular communication causes problems in planning meeting times and the ability to discuss what activities will be done at each session. To solve this communication issue, personal numbers have been given to one another in order to ensure that contact can be made when needed. Another difficulty that has been encountered is a lack of mutual understanding and mismatched view points. In order to provide an open dialogue about any concerns we now meet regularly to discuss all issues prior to an event. Expectations and services are brainstormed and then compromise is reached on those grounds. Sometimes alternate plans for future meetings between the Girl Scouts and volunteers are developed at these times as well. This way, both parties are on the same page at the end of the interaction and the sessions with the Girl Scouts run smoothly. The partnership has come a long way since it started at Otterbein and we are excited about the future.
Our project will be called “Granola Girls” and will start in January. Granola Girls will be a health wellness program that is designed not only to educate the Girl Scouts on health issues facing teenage girls but also to unite them as a group of healthy girls who will educate their communities. The girls will complete health-focused projects when they come to Otterbein’s campus exploring wellness activities, good nutrition for teens, prescription and drug education, healthy living, health issues facing urban teens, goals for their own healthy lifestyle, careers in the medical and health fields, and educational resources. Granola Girls provides a space for diverse dialogue between girls from the Bonds Beyond Bars and the Latina Girl Scouts who come from significantly varied backgrounds yet share the commonality of the body. Issues of health and wellness the girls will address do not recognize the boundaries of class, race or language and open discussions amongst the girls will cross these boundaries as well. Danielle recognizes that one of the many roles of a nurse is to bestow her knowledge on others to promote their maximum level of health. As a student nurse, this role is extremely important to Danielle and she emphasizes the skills of communication and the act of caring in her coursework. These skills will be further honed through Granola Girls, as the program will serve as Danielle’s nursing practicum focused on theories of adolescent health.
Use of Funds: The grant money will be used to host these activities and to also foster the relationships with the community and within their troop. Funds will be used to partner with community organizations such as the Red Cross, Children’s Hunger Alliance and COSI, all existing partners of the Center for Community Engagement at Otterbein. These partners will provide supplemental enrichment activities for the girls through site visits, workshops, and the sharing of educational materials. The Girl Scouts will design Granola Girls T-shirts and we will purchase additional health resources. In the end, they will compile a Granola GirlZine, a magazine devoted to healthy teen girls, in which girls write what they learned, and explain how to implement healthy strategies. The girls will then be able to take the GirlZine and give a presentation to their class at school in order to educate their peers about the health issues all teenage girls face. Each GirlZine that is published will be marketed and sold to other Girl Scout Troops in order to sustain the project. All profits will be used to fund future publications of the Granola GirlZine. The Center for Community Engagement supports a wide range of youthLEAD projects funded in part by Learn and Serve America, and all that youth should guide their own learning and service. In Granola Girls, the Girl Scouts will be able choose how they want to go about involving the community partners how they want to educate their peers about health issues. Additionally, some of the topics covered will be ones that the Girl Scouts of America’s curriculum encompasses and they will earn badges along the way, further fostering the relationship with Bonds Beyond Bars and Girl Scouts Seal of Ohio. Another aspect of community collaboration that this program will involve will be the Girl Scouts providing a Health Day for their mothers in the Franklin Pre-Release Center and Marysville Detention Center to teach them about eating healthy and about some of the issues that they will have explored. Through the Granola Girls program the Girl Scouts will discover a healthy way to change their life and the importance of sharing that knowledge with their community to promote change. The Granola Girls will unite together and receive something that no one can take from them…a healthy lifestyle.
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