What you can do to help

Everything on this page will support you to make your area of Girlguiding inclusive and welcoming.

Need to get in touch?

If you have any questions or general feedback about inclusion, you can contact [email protected]

We actively encourage you to report any incidents of discrimination, bullying or harassment. This could be something that’s happened to you, or something you’ve witnessed. We encourage you to report this, no matter how big or small you feel the incident was, or if you’re not sure what happened counts as discrimination, bullying or harassment. In line with our Anti-bullying and harassment policy, you can report any incident to [email protected]

Our equality and diversity policy and procedure also clearly sets out what equality means in guiding, what we expect from our volunteers and adult members, and what you can expect from Girlguiding.  

Explore diversity and inclusion

These activities and resources will support you to explore the ideas and issues that are raised in our plan. You can reflect on your own thoughts around the plan or use parts of our programme to help girls talk about what inclusion means to them.

Training and reflection for volunteers

• Including all training – Identify practical ways to make your unit more inclusive, and learn to recognise, deal with and report instances of discrimination.  
• Reflective resource for volunteers (PDF) - Think about what diversity and inclusion means for you, as an individual and in your guiding role.

Talking to girls about inclusion

We’d love you to get chatting about our ambition in your units. You might want to do this by using these unit meetings activities. You can download all of these for free so you can easily bring our plan to life in your unit. 

Our inclusion activities

• Rainbows learn all about empathy in Fuzzy feelings. By listening to a story, they’ll see if they can tell if someone feels left out and learn how to include everyone in their fun and games. Download Fuzzy feelings.
• Brownies become town planners in Brownie town. They’ll design their ultimate Brownie town in Sixes, and then imagine that new Brownies are arriving. What could they add to their town to make sure that any Brownie in the world would feel welcome? Download Brownie town.  
• My support chain teaches Guides how to challenge discrimination in places that are safe to them, like their unit and school. Then, the unit will create a support chain, thinking about how they can take small actions every day to make their world a better place. Download My support chain.  
• Allies unite! gets Rangers creating an allyship manifesto. By the end of the activity, they’ll have learnt that allyship is a journey and a commitment to small, everyday acts of inclusion as well as supporting larger campaigns for equality to create a better world. Download Allies unite!

Other inclusion-themed activities

• Rainbows – Pizza party (PDF)
• Brownies – Fairest of them all (PDF)
• Guides – Animal advantages (PDF)
• Rangers – Intersectional identities (PDF)

For more activities for your unit, we recommend looking for unit meeting activities that sit in the Better together topic. You can find two activities from this topic in unit meeting activity packs 6, 7 and 8.

The Reflect skills builder will help girls explore their communities, cultures and reflect on their beliefs and values. And in the Feel good skills builder, they’ll develop healthy physical and mental wellbeing by exploring nutrition, being active, using stress management and relaxation techniques.

Girls can get creative with these interest badges at home and explore what it means to welcome everyone.

• Brownies - Speaking out
• Guides - Human rights
• Rangers - Morals and values

More support

Advice, activities and blogs to take the conversation further.

• Talking about race and racism – advice, activities and ideas for learning more about race and racism.
• Marking Windrush Day - discover the history behind this day and how you can get involved with your friends, family and units.  
• Listening to, respecting and supporting trans members – advice on how to support trans members in Girlguiding.  
• Celebrating religious festivals – how to mark occasions meaningfully and respectfully in your unit.  
• Welcoming young people seeking asylum and refugees into units – advice and support on how to welcome refugees and asylum seekers in Girlguiding.  
• Top tips on going to a Pride event – some tips for units, districts and divisions who want to attend Pride events in their area.  
• How to help people with mental health problems feel included in Girlguiding – Beth, our specialist inclusion adviser for mental health, shares her advice. 
• How to help girls from low-income families join your unit - we talked to unit leaders across the country about how they include members in areas of deprivation.  
• Supporting young carers in your unit - we hear from a volunteer with caring experience on what it’s like to be a young carer, and what we can do to help.  
• Think resilient activities – talking about our identities and experiences can be challenging. Use these wellbeing activities to make sure everyone is taking care of themselves.
• Including all - our guidance and advice for including all girls and volunteers in your unit.

Stories from members

• ‘Girlguiding adventures are for everyone’ - disabled leader Kate on how adventures have been made accessible for her.  
• ‘I’d like other Brownies to use Makaton in their units’ – Brownie Freya-Rose tells us how she’s working towards her Speaking out badge. 
• ‘I’d love to see more diverse women get involved in walking’ – our walking specialist advisers want to help more members discover the fun of walking.  
• Guiding friendship helped a Ukranian refugee come to the UK – Olha and her son have settled in the UK thanks to friends from Girlguiding’s GOLD programme.  
• ‘How I’m raising disability awareness in my units’ – deaf unit leader and assistant division commissioner Tash shares how she’s putting disability inclusion at the heart of everything she does.  
• ‘Girlguiding has been a lifeline for my daughter with FND’ - Gemma, parent and volunteer, on what it’s like for her daughter to live with FND, and how Girlguiding has been a source of support during the challenging times. 
• What are microaggressions and how can you avoid them? – volunteer Melanie writes about her own experiences with microaggressions and why it’s important we talk about them in guiding. 
• What LGBTQ+ members want you to know - use this advice to make sure everyone feels like they belong when they're with us. 
• 2 journeys to Pride – stories from 2 areas of guiding on how they went about representing Girlguiding at Pride 
• ‘I’m an autistic leader – here’s how my team help me feel included’ – Brownie leader Allison Johnson talks about her experiences in guiding.