The Academy

6th February 2024

In November, I attended The Academy, an event organised by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM), on behalf of Girlguiding North East England. The Academy takes place every year and is designed to provide high quality training and networking opportunities for participants.

This year, The Academy was in Wiesbaden, Germany and was driven by 4 key themes: nurture, enhance, innovation and voice. As my role is to lead on girl voice, I chose sessions on areas such as meaningful youth participation, youth led action on climate change, advocacy, facilitating change, succession planning and creating brave spaces for girls and young women to fully participate.

The motto of The Academy was Play, Plan, Grow and our evenings were filled with fun activities to socialise and learn more about Guiding and Scouting across the world. We took part in traditional German Scout activities, took part in a treasure hunt around Wiesbaden and enjoyed an international evening where we tried different food and activities from each of the countries in attendance.

The highlight of the event was exchanging ideas with Guides and Scouts from across Europe (and the world) and meeting the other 7 members who attended on behalf of Girlguiding. I came away at the end of the week with my head brimming with new ideas about how we can continue to put girl voice at the centre of everything we do.

In my role in NEE I have been working with Bridge, our new youth network panel, and I am really looking forward to sharing the learning with them in early 2024. Watch this space! 

Amy Solomons, Assistant Chief Commissioner