Visionary

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Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit

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Funders and partners help GSMD

meet community needs

Each year thousands of girls benefit from participation in GSMD programs. Thanks to the generous financial support of numerous key partners, GSMD

is able to provide exceptional learning experiences that empower girls to discover, connect, and take action as young leaders in their communities.

Below are summaries of selected funding support received over the past year. Read more about our supporters in Visionary and Recent Grants.

The Skillman Foundation awarded GSMD a $160,000 grant to support Positive Youth Development programming that provides traditional and non-traditional troop activities to all girls ages 5-17, with an emphasis on serving girls in economically disadvantaged communities in Wayne and Oakland counties. The Skillman Foundation also supported Career Pathways with a $100,000 grant to provide school-based interventions and resources for 1,500 girls living in the Osborn and Brightmoor communities of Detroit to acquire the skills, tools and vision to pursue post-secondary education.

The Chrysler Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to support "Girls Go Tech! The STEM Experience." This program provides hands-on learning and allows girls to discover careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Girls also connect with other girls and successful women professionals, including members of the Society of Women Engineers, who help them take action toward career paths that prepare them for the real challenges of today and tomorrow.

The General Motors Foundation supported innovative leadership programming with a $25,000 grant to provide girls ages 11-17 the opportunity to participate in Studio 2B, College Quest, and council-wide educational, recreational, and cultural program offerings. Older Girl Leadership Programming reinforces girls’ confidence and their ability to achieve academic success while exposing them to career opportunities.

Girls Scouts of the USA awarded $11,000 through the Project Anti-Violence Education (PAVE) initiative to GSMD’s Safe Girls Grow Strong program. In collaboration with the Livonia Save Our Youth Task Force, Livonia Public Schools, Detroit Public Schools, and the Michigan State Police, the project provides intervention programs to change attitudes and behaviors regarding violence, bullying, alcohol and drug abuse, and internet safety among youth in the Livonia and Detroit school districts.

The Comerica Charitable Foundation awarded grants totaling $15,000 to support life skills and financial literacy/money management skill-building through GSMD’s Positive Youth Development program, with special emphasis on serving girls ages 11-17 living in underserved communities in Detroit, Pontiac, Highland Park, Hamtramck, River Rouge, and Ecorse.

The Shelden Fund provided $10,000 to support GSMD’s Positive Youth Development program, designed to meet the diverse needs of girls ages 5-17 in metro Detroit. Outreach to those who live in economically distressed areas provides the knowledge, tools, and skills to overcome the challenges life presents and also helps girls actively participate, succeed, and thrive.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan supported the HABIT (Healthy Active Bodies in Training) program with a grant of $6,260. This program provides troop leaders with kits that provide healthy eating and living exercises, a pedometer, wellness information, and activities to be conducted witin the troop setting. Kits are age-appropriate, presenting increasingly challenging activities for older troops while integrating health and wellness information for all age groups.

The Michigan Women’s Foundation supported Safe Girls Grow Strong with a $5,000 grant to deliver safety and life skills programming to more than 100 at-risk girls in fifth and sixth grades at Clippert Academy middle school in southwest Detroit. The program provides young girls the skills to make the appropriate decisions, reduce their vulnerability to crime, resolve conflict, build self-esteem, and make a safe and positive learning environment.

Charter One Foundation awarded $2,500 to support life skills and financial literacy skill-building through GSMD’s Positive Youth Development program and Studio 2B older girl programs, with special emphasis on girls ages 7-17 living in underserved communities including Detroit, Highland Park, Hamtramck, River Rouge, and Ecorse.

Safe Girls Grow Strong gives girls tools to develop self-esteem and guard against negative influences ... keeping them safe at home, at school, in their neighborhoods, and online.

Science, technology, engineering, and math are the focus of "Girls Go Tech! The STEM Experience."

Recent Grants

Skillman Grant helps Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit build readers, leaders

Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit was awarded a $160,000 grant from The Skillman Foundation to provide a Literacy Enrichment Program in communities and schools considered to be at risk based on family income level, district reading scores, and job-loss factors. The year-long initiative, which was launched in April 2008, provides a critical resource to girls ages 6 through 8 in Detroit’s Cody Rouge and North End communities.

“Leadership development is the focus of Girl Scouting, and no one becomes a leader without first being a reader,” said Arlene M. Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit. “GSMD’s Literacy Enrichment Program has the potential to help girls build strong skills for their current and future education and eventually help them in their careers.”

The initiative is being carried out in schools and other sites and will benefit approximately 750 girls through after-school or in-school participation. The girls will complete assignments in the program’s “Follow the Reader” book and reinforce their reading and writing skills with activities such as journaling and personal story writing. Obtaining library cards, writing plays, and participating in literacy-based community service projects also serve to support reading and writing skill development that can enhance each girls’ expressive language skills and social/emotional development.

In keeping with Girl Scout tenets, activities within the Literacy Enrichment Program are girl-directed and viewed by girls as fun social activities to make the learning and skill-building process interesting, effective, and sustaining.

Created in 1960, The Skillman Foundation is a private philanthropy whose chief aim is to help develop good schools and good neighborhoods for children. Though grants are made throughout metropolitan Detroit, most grants are directed at six Detroit neighborhoods – Southwest Detroit (Vernor and Chadsey/Condon), Brightmoor, Osborn, Central, and Cody/Rouge – and toward innovative and successful schools throughout the city of Detroit. The Foundation has an annual grantmaking budget of $27 million.

Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit is affiliated with Girl Scouts of the USA, the preeminent organization and leading authority on girls. GSMD is the largest mentor of girls in the Metro Detroit area and among the largest Girl Scout councils in the United States, providing developmental programs and activities for some 32,000 girls ages 5-17. The Girl Scout leadership experience empowers girls to discover, connect and take action through activities that are girl-led and involve experiential and cooperative learning. Through a variety of contemporary and traditional programs, Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

A United Way Agency