New wording to emphasise that guiding is open to all girls
Girlguiding has strengthened its commitment to being open to all girls by updating the Promise that girls and volunteers make when they join the organisation. The decision came after a consultation involving nearly 44,000 people of all ages from inside and outside guiding. The Promise, which sees members commit to ‘do their best’, is the core expression of guiding’s values.
The updated Promise will ask members to ‘be true to myself and develop my beliefs’. This will replace the previous phrase ‘to love my God’. The change was made after the consultation showed that different words were needed to include all girls, of all faiths and none, more explicitly in the Promise.
The revised wording will also see members promise ‘to serve the Queen and my community’ – a change from ‘to serve the Queen and my country’. The new wording explains the commitment to being a positive member of the community, with a strong sense of responsibility for others, in language more easily understood by girls today.
Gill Slocombe, Chief Guide, said: ‘Girlguiding believes passionately that girls need a space to explore their values and build the confidence to be true to themselves. Guiding has always been somewhere that all girls can develop their beliefs and moral framework, both inside and outside the context of a formal religion.
‘However, we knew that some people found our Promise confusing on this point and that it discouraged some girls and volunteers from joining us. We hope that the new wording will help us reach out to girls and women who might not have considered guiding before – so that even more girls can benefit from everything guiding can offer.
‘Guiding believes in having one Promise that is a clear statement of our core values for all our members to commit to. We hope that our new Promise will allow all girls – of all faiths and none – to understand and feel proud of their commitment.’
The new Promise reads:
I promise that I will do my best:
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs,
To serve the Queen and my community,
To help other people
and
To keep the (Brownie) Guide law.
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