Community Partners
The Girl Scout mission delivery model in eastern Massachusetts
includes a growing list of community partners; collaboration is key to
our ability to deliver leadership development programs to girls in
underserved communities. Communities are identified based on needs
assessments conducted across the Commonwealth and supported by data
from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary
Education, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the
Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
We partner with
community agencies that have fulfilled our Criteria of Need
requirements and are located in one of our targeted cities with:
- the highest Massachusetts teen pregnancy rates
- Girls more likely to be victims of violence, and juvenile assaults by girls more likely to take place, based on a combination of Youth Risk Behavior, public safety and crime data
- higher 9th-12th grade high school dropout rates than the state average
- lower than the state average on all three 10th grade MCAS
tests
- a larger population of low-income students than the state average
GSEMA developed the FaB Factor program with a belief that a targeted
Girl Scout leadership curriculum, and consistent access to caring
adults, would make a difference in the lives of girls in underserved
communities.
Serving girls ages 5-18 residing in urban
neighborhoods, our FaB Factor program promotes positive social skills
and behaviors through four modules: Health and Fitness (Fit and
Beautiful), Financial Literacy (Finance and Business), the STEM
disciplines (Fractions, Fixtures and Bytes, Beakers) and Environmental
Awareness (Forests, Farms and Blueways). Like all Girl Scouts, our FaB
Factor girls learn new skills, develop confidence, and feel empowered
to make a difference. They embark on girl-planned community service
learning and gain exposure to opportunities outside of their typical
environment. Every program includes:
- an induction ceremony
- opportunity to sell cookies, to fund their activities
- field trips
- participation in larger-scale events for girls, including the GSEMA STEM Conference
Current FaB Communities:
New Bedford, Boston, Brockton,
Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Revere, Salem and Taunton.
