Word is getting out

Farringtons News, March 2015

We've reached that exciting part of a campaign where articles are gradually appearing in community newsletters, magazines, school publications and so on.  Above is our piece on p3 in the Farringtons News.  If you scour the local area, you'll also find a double-page spread in The Petts Wood Gazette, a piece in Look Out (St Nicholas' Church newsletter), plus articles in Contact (Chislehurst Methodist Church newsletter), Christ Church Chislehurst News, St Francis of Assisi's newsletter (the church in Petts Wood, rather than St Francis himself), The Annunciation's newsletter, plus there are many other articles in the pipeline for other newsletters and websites.  If you have channels of communication open to you and can help us spread the word, please do so: ChislehurstDivisionGrowGuiding@gmail.com


Maybe you've arrived here because you wanted to read about our mission to grow Guiding in Chislehurst and Petts Wood. Let me update you.

Since the last blogpost, I have finalised the details for all of the potential Rainbow units. We did some mapping a while back to understand the need for more units. The idea was to plot where it would make sense to open new Rainbow units. After a great deal of research and a flurry of emails and phone calls explaining that I was scoping rather than booking and that all this is theoretical depending on if people come forward to volunteer, I now have a list of six different venues which are happy to host Rainbow units - three in Chislehurst, three in Petts Wood.  Some are venues which currently host other sections, or have done in the past; others are venues which Girlguiding has not used before.

Whilst it is all theoretical at this point, it's still important to present people with options as to whether they would consider particular units if they were available. I wish I could wave a magic wand and open six units overnight, but this is impossible without more volunteers.  For some reason, all units in Chislehurst Village run on Mondays or Tuesdays, therefore there may be a whole group of people who don't engage with Girlguiding locally because those days are not convenient to them.  But there are 5 other days in the week when units could be operating! A big part of Growing Guiding is identifying the need in particular areas, then working to meet that need.  Petts Wood now has just 1 Rainbow unit and is in urgent need of more.

A letter has been prepared and is going to be sent to all the families who are waiting-to-join Rainbows in Chislehurst Division. It outlines how we are scoping possibilities for new units and asks parents firstly if potential venues, times and dates  would suit them and secondly, how they can be part of the adventure! We are entirely volunteer-led, but we need more volunteers to get involved.  If you are on the waiting-to-join list, expect a letter to be with you very soon! Please respond to it, and consider how you can join the most progressive movement of our time.

I attended the County Growing Guiding Co-ordinators meeting last Wednesday where I outlined our Division mega-plan to get girls off waiting-to-join lists and into new Rainbow units. We have been very pro-active in placing articles, tweeting, blogging, organising coffee mornings (watch this space), booking promotional stalls at events - come and see us at Petts Wood May Fayre on May 4th, Chislehurst Rotary Fair on June 13th and Chislehurst Rocks on June 20th. If you're in the Chislehurst or Petts Wood area and know of other events we could attend, please let us know!

We've emailed all the community spaces in the area, schools, nurseries, places of worship etc., asking for them to help us to recruit volunteers to open new Rainbow units.  If you are reading this because we've emailed you about our campaign, do get in touch - we're lovely. We can provide articles of any length, soundbites, photos, tweets, posters, adverts, case studies, speakers, whatever you want really.  Get in touch!