Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, Racial Justice (DEIARJ) and Anti-Racism

The Girl Scout mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place, this includes every Girl Scout of every background.

Our strategic purpose for 2025-2029 is to boldly lead as an anti-racist organization that uplifts and empowers every Girl Scout to know their worth and lead in their world.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Message

Leading Boldly, Living Our Commitment

At Girl Scouts River Valleys, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and racial justice isn’t just words on paper — it’s a living promise. Written into our Charter in July 2023, this commitmentcalls us to boldly lead as an anti-racist organization — one that uplifts, empowers, and ensures every Girl Scout knows her worth and leads with confidence in her world.

Being an anti-racist organization means we lead with courage and consistency. It means naming the systems of racism and oppression that exist not only in society, but also within our own structures — and then doing the intentional work to change them. We won’t always get it right, but we will always show up, own our mistakes, and grow forward together.

This movement is about more than representation — it’s about belonging. It’s about making sure every girl has a seat at the bonfire, where her light shines just as brightly as everyone else’s. We are creating spaces where girls don’t just feel welcomed; they feel seen, valued, and celebrated.

We’re building a council where positive energy is contagious — where every volunteer, staff member, and Girl Scout feels inspired to lift others up and bring them along on the journey. Because when one girl finds her voice, she sparks a flame that can ignite a whole community.

We’re not just talking about change — we’re living it. And we can’t wait for you to join us on this journey.

- Marisa C. Williams, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Girl Scouts River Valleys

Becoming an Anti-Racist Organization

Everyone wins in an Anti-Racist Organization. Girl Scouts River Valleys recognizes racism and oppression as parts of our societal norms, as well as apart of our own organizations’ historical culture and practices. To achieve our mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place, we know racism and oppression in any form must be actively combated.

Actions and Activities toggle arrow

Created the Equity and Culture Office and instituted an Equity Framework process for our strategic and annual planning processes.
We are working to call out and eliminate systems of oppression through our beliefs, words, actions, and to evaluate our organization for systemic and cultural inequities and bias.
We recognize we will make mistakes and will courageously use the opportunities they present to change, improve, and grow.
Work will include evaluating and improving our:
- Programs, Camp, and Retail
- Girl Scout and Volunteer Recruitment, Experience, and Retention
- Staff Hiring, Retention, and Promotion
- Workplace and Volunteer Culture
- Leadership
- Communication and Customer Service
- Administration (Finance, Human Resources, Information Services)
- Development
- Properties
- Supports and Resources for Volunteers, Members, and Girl Scouts

Cultural Competence

We build the cultural competence of Girl Scouts staff, volunteers, and board members through ongoing learning and training opportunities. We define cultural competence as the ability to recognize that people have different lived experiences; a culturally competent individual or organization understands, accepts, and respects the differences between and within cultures.

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All staff, board and board development committee members are required to take the Intercultural Development Inventory to assess and further their progression along a continuum of cross-cultural competence.
Quarterly Equity Learning Series for staff to deepen knowledge and understanding of issues related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, Racial Justice and Anti-Racism. Training approach offers community centered sessions that focus on marginalized communities.
Our staff Equity and Culture Champions Program works to build internal capacity in facilitating difficult dialogue and skill development around intercultural issues.

Equity Framework

We are working to ensure that Girl Scouts River Valleys’ values about diversity, equity, inclusion, access, racial justice, and Anti-racism are integrated across each department in our organization, creating systems that keep us accountable to our community.

We are working to bring this work to our membership in meaningful and informed ways to transform experiences and be representative of the population and communities we serve.

Actions and Activities toggle arrow

Creating and implementing an Equity Framework that Our “New” Equity Framework is designed to work with and integrate into our strategic plan. It does this by:
- Identify and prioritize equity strategies focusing on persistent inequities we haven’t been able to remove.
- Setting targets and monitoring progress
- Providing enhanced support to teams
- Developing regular communication activities that create accountability, heighten awareness, and celebrate successes.
Establish clear policies to communicate and enforce that Girl Scouts is for every family regardless of economic barriers, race or ethnicity, economic status, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identification, or any other protected identity or characteristic.
Provide financial assistance to 1 in 5 girls through our financial assistance program so that Girl Scout programs remain economically inclusive.
Provide families of color with the option to participate in our Mentored Troops or ConnectZ initiatives. These initiatives provide girls of color with opportunities to participate in ethnically diverse troops where theycan connect with each other and with mentors of color.
Create both virtual and in-person programs so that families can participate in the way that is safest, easiest, and most accessible to them.

Recruit and Retain

Require each staff member to complete a minimum of 40 hours of purposeful learning and service in communities to support their growth in intercultural competency.

Actions and Activities toggle arrow

Require each staff member to complete a minimum of 40 hours of purposeful learning and service in communities under-supported per year.
Track staff’s cultural competence development and journey using the Intercultural Development Inventory, the premier cross-cultural assessment of cultural competence, to ensure that our organization is moving forward.
Train the trainer program for a staff cohort as Equity and Culture Champions, whose role is to develop learning resources and offer peer support to other staff.
Employee Affinity Groups to provide staff members from underrepresented and shared experience groups with the support networks and leadership opportunities they need to advance in their careers.
Require our candidate pools to achieve a set amount of racial diversity while hiring to ensure that we are recruiting staff of color.
Engage leadership staff in regular trainings about inclusion in recruitment and management practices, ensuring that they are creating an inclusive work environment for the staff they hire and supervise.

The Girl Scout mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place, this includes every Girl Scout of every background.

Our strategic purpose for 2025-2029 is to boldly lead as an anti-racist organization that uplifts and empowers every Girl Scout to know their worth and lead in their world.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Message

Leading Boldly, Living Our Commitment

We’re building a council where positive energy is contagious — where every volunteer, staff member, and Girl Scout feels inspired to lift others up and bring them along on the journey. Because when one girl finds her voice, she sparks a flame that can ignite a whole community.

We’re not just talking about change — we’re living it. And we can’t wait for you to join us on this journey.

- Marisa C. Williams, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Girl Scouts River Valleys

Becoming an Anti-Racist Organization

Created the Equity and Culture Office and instituted an Equity Framework process for our strategic and annual planning processes.

We are working to call out and eliminate systems of oppression through our beliefs, words, actions, and to evaluate our organization for systemic and cultural inequities and bias.

We recognize we will make mistakes and will courageously use the opportunities they present to change, improve, and grow.

Work will include evaluating and improving our:

Programs, Camp, and Retail

Girl Scout and Volunteer Recruitment, Experience, and Retention

Staff Hiring, Retention, and Promotion

Workplace and Volunteer Culture

Leadership

Communication and Customer Service

Administration (Finance, Human Resources, Information Services)

Development

Properties

Supports and Resources for Volunteers, Members, and Girl Scouts

Cultural Competence

All staff, board and board development committee members are required to take the Intercultural Development Inventory to assess and further their progression along a continuum of cross-cultural competence.

Quarterly Equity Learning Series for staff to deepen knowledge and understanding of issues related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, Racial Justice and Anti-Racism. Training approach offers community centered sessions that focus on marginalized communities.

Our staff Equity and Culture Champions Program works to build internal capacity in facilitating difficult dialogue and skill development around intercultural issues.

Equity Framework

We are working to ensure that Girl Scouts River Valleys’ values about diversity, equity, inclusion, access, racial justice, and Anti-racism are integrated across each department in our organization, creating systems that keep us accountable to our community.

We are working to bring this work to our membership in meaningful and informed ways to transform experiences and be representative of the population and communities we serve.

Creating and implementing an Equity Framework that Our “New” Equity Framework is designed to work with and integrate into our strategic plan. It does this by:

Identify and prioritize equity strategies focusing on persistent inequities we haven’t been able to remove.

Setting targets and monitoring progress

Providing enhanced support to teams

Developing regular communication activities that create accountability, heighten awareness, and celebrate successes.

Provide financial assistance to 1 in 5 girls through our financial assistance program so that Girl Scout programs remain economically inclusive.

Provide families of color with the option to participate in our Mentored Troops or ConnectZ initiatives. These initiatives provide girls of color with opportunities to participate in ethnically diverse troops where theycan connect with each other and with mentors of color.

Create both virtual and in-person programs so that families can participate in the way that is safest, easiest, and most accessible to them.

Recruit and Retain

Require each staff member to complete a minimum of 40 hours of purposeful learning and service in communities to support their growth in intercultural competency.

Require each staff member to complete a minimum of 40 hours of purposeful learning and service in communities under-supported per year.

Track staff’s cultural competence development and journey using the Intercultural Development Inventory, the premier cross-cultural assessment of cultural competence, to ensure that our organization is moving forward.

Train the trainer program for a staff cohort as Equity and Culture Champions, whose role is to develop learning resources and offer peer support to other staff.

Employee Affinity Groups to provide staff members from underrepresented and shared experience groups with the support networks and leadership opportunities they need to advance in their careers.

Require our candidate pools to achieve a set amount of racial diversity while hiring to ensure that we are recruiting staff of color.

Engage leadership staff in regular trainings about inclusion in recruitment and management practices, ensuring that they are creating an inclusive work environment for the staff they hire and supervise.