Irish Girl Guides and Gaisce – The President’s Award launch partnership

Irish Girl Guides and Gaisce – The President’s Award launch partnership to encourage young women to reach for the sun, moon and stars!

Gaisce – the President’s Award, and Irish Girl Guides (IGG) have launched a partnership to encourage young women to reach for the sun, moon and stars!

Recognising the similarities between their award schemes for young people, the two organisations decided to join forces with the aim of encouraging greater numbers of girls and young women to undertake challenges and activities that will help them become confident, active and responsible citizens.

IGG Chief Commissioner Helen Concannon said that, while re-engineering their programme for 14-30 year-olds recently, it seemed perfectly apt to work in partnership with Gaisce, especially given the organisations’ similar values of volunteerism and empowering young people to be active citizens. 

“Recognising the mutuality between the aims and objectives of IGG’s Overall Awards programme and the Gaisce programme, and in order to facilitate delivery of Gaisce in a way that is complementary, IGG has aligned the requirements of the Overall Award to Gaisce at each level. IGG members who successfully achieve a Bronze Star, Silver Moon or Golden Sun Award will now receive a Gaisce Award at the corresponding level.”

IGG and Gaisce hope that the partnership will ensure that greater numbers of young people will engage in a range of activities and challenges, like community action, mountaineering and international travel, that will help them develop confidence, self-reliance, responsibility and interpersonal skills.

Yvonne McKenna, CEO of Gaisce – The President’s Award said \’We are delighted to announce our special partnership with the Irish Girl Guides. Gaisce’s vision fully aligns with that of the Guides – ‘to enable girls and young women to develop to their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world’. We recognise that is through partnership and working together that our shared ambitions can be achieved. We look forward to working together to achieve an Ireland where young people dream big and fulfill their potential.\’

Concannon, who herself achieved the Gold Gaisce Award, said: “It was an honour to wear my Girl Guide uniform when President Mary McAleese presented me with my award. It was through my involvement in Girl Guides that I first heard about Gaisce and I think it is wonderful to see the two organisations work together in this way. This partnership is another example that shows the skills, competencies and behaviours fostered in IGG are transferrable to other aspects of our members lives.”