Welcoming parents to guiding

Let's kickstart their child’s guiding experience with a warm welcome

Whether it’s a parent or a young member, everyone’s guiding experience should start with a warm welcome.  

It can be a little overwhelming for parents and carers to introduce their child to a new group of people for the first time. That’s why we want to make sure every new parent or carer has the information they need about guiding when their child joins. 

What you can do as a volunteer 

As a volunteer who’s managing a waiting list and helping to register a child, you’ll already have good communication with parents. By this point, you’ll have given them a warm welcome and kept them updated with their application progress on the waiting list. You also should've already talked to parents about filling in the correct starting form for their child. The best thing you can do is keep them in the loop about your unit’s plans and activities for the guiding term.

After parents have got the welcome pack, it’s up to you as volunteers to keep parents up-to-date with the latest news from their unit as their daughter continues on her guiding journey.

You can also make sure you consider every individual child’s needs. For example, if a parent or carer has registered a child with an allergy on GO, it’s a good idea to follow up with them or arrange a meeting to reassure them their child is supported. Knowing you’re there to create a positive experience for their child will make a huge difference to parents. Guiding is all about feeling empowered and included – and everyone should feel comfortable.  

Read more about making reasonable adjustments to your unit. 

Our parent and carer welcome pack 

Once a child joins, their parent or carer will receive our welcome pack. The pack includes everything they need to know about Girlguiding and will be sent to them via email so it’s important their email address is entered correctly in GO. 

We worked closely with volunteers and parents to create a welcome pack that covers exactly what information parents need to know.  

Take a look at the parent and carers welcome pack. 

After parents and carers have got the welcome pack, it’s up to you as volunteers how you keep parents updated with the latest news from their unit as their child continues on their guiding journey. 

Involving parents in guiding

Ask parents to use their skills and time to help their daughters get the most out of guiding

Get parents to join in