Four Badges or Other Earned Awards

Earn a Journey Award

What’s a Journey? It’s a themed collection of activities and leadership exploration completed over several troop meetings. Journey recognition includes 1–4 awards, depending on the grade level and the topic. A Journey is completed with a Take Action project and the experience of creating a small change to make the world a better place. Journey Take Action projects are important practice for Highest Awards. So important, in fact, that earning one Journey is a prerequisite to earning the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards!

Journey awards are earned as a set, unlike badges which are earned individually. Some Journey topics are designed for 10–13 troop meetings. The STEM Journey can be completed in about 4–8 meetings. The Outdoor Journey is unique; it is a collection of three existing outdoor skills badges that can take
about 6–8 meetings to earn. Use the Journey curriculum books from the Girl Scout Shop or the year plans in the Volunteer Toolkit to help you plan ahead.
Some troops successfully complete the bulk of their Journey in a day-long Saturday session or a weekend trip away.

Available Journeys

Find available Journeys in each grade level. A brief description of each Journey is included in the Award & Badge Explorer.

Choose from these topics:

  • It’s Your World—Change It! Advocacy and Leadership
  • It’s Your Planet—Love It! Environmental Science and Conservation
  • It’s Your Story—Tell It! Relationships and Communication
  • Engineering: Think Like an Engineer. Design-Build Concepts
  • Computer Science: Think Like a Programmer. Problem Solving and Patterns
  • Outdoor STEM: Think Like a Citizen Scientist. Data Gathering and Analysis
  • Outdoor: Adventure Skills and Group Camping

Multi-level Troops

Journeys are great for multi-level troops! Journey topics have a progression of skills for each grade level. The common topic makes it easier to plan large group events, outings and activities for different ages of girls. Troop leaders can read up in the Volunteer Toolkit for activity ideas appropriate to each grade level and then choose the one most appropriate to most girls. Or, offer two activity options: one for younger girls and one for older girls. Remember, it’s ok to adapt and modify the material for your unique troop composition. We call it “honoring the spirit of the badge.” It’s ok to creatively adjust the contents to help girls achieve the larger goal of the badge!

Brownie Inspiration

Here are three Take Action projects showcased by Girl Scouts of the USA. These stories illustrate the potential big impact of a small idea. Who knows what your girls may accomplish!

How one Brownie troop became social entrepreneurs. They earned the It’s Your Story—Tell It! Journey.

Brownies inspire school to save water. They earned the It’s Your Planet—Love It! Journey.

Girl Scout Brownies convince City Hall to build sidewalk. They earned the It’s Your World—Change It! Journey.

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