On Saturday 1st November, Young Leaders from across the County came together for Ignite 2025, and afternoon of developing their leadership skills and discovering the opportunities available to them through Girlguiding.
The afternoon started off with the participants getting into groups and coming up with an activity to run for everyone. They had to run the activity as normal and then run the activity a second time introducing a new rule. The goal of the activity was to get everyone comfortable with thinking on their feet, standing up in front of everyone and running an activity, and thinking of ways of ‘collecting data’ to evaluate an activity once it was done. We talked about the difference between quantitative and qualitative data, and how both can be helpful in evaluating how an activity has gone.
The groups had lots of fun getting involved with the activities and it was so great to see everyone so enthusiastic about leading!
I really enjoyed the event. The activities were fun and the leadership information was useful. I came away feeling very motivated about pursuing leadership opportunities in guiding.” – Young Leader, Hillingdon South Division
After the groups had run their activities and done their evaluations, they sat down with some of the UMA and Skills Builder cards to think about how they would run and adapt these for their units, it was lovely to see everyone working together and there were some great ideas which came out of the session.
We then had a pizza break, before looking at all the opportunities available for 14-17 and 18+ year olds through Girlguiding. Everyone then broke into groups to discuss the opportunities they were interested in. We had groups discussing doing their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award through Girlguiding, starting their Queen’s Guide Award and others discussing the Young Leader Development Programme.
This was such a fun event and really well organised! We got to meet so many lovely people and try new things when leading activities. And also learn so much more about becoming a Young Leader!” – Young Leader, Harrow and Pinner Division
Overall, it was a really great afternoon – this was the first time we have run this type of event, so all of the enthusiasm and positivity from the participants made it such a positive experience for us leaders as well!
If you are interested in finding out more about the opportunities available for Young Leader and Rangers, please feel free to take a look at the resource from the day or contact any of the people below to find out more!
Young Leader Advisor – Alice – youngleaders@ggmw.org.uk
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – Rachael – rachaeld@ggmw.org.uk
Queen’s Guide Award – Emily – queensguide@ggmw.org.uk
Peer Education – Katie – peered@ggmw.org.uk
International Opportunities – Daisy – international@ggmw.org.uk
