GUIDES
My support chain
What you’ll need
- Paper (four different colours)
- Pens and pencils
- Glue sticks
- Scissors
- Copies of the bingo card sheet, one per girl
Aim of the activity
Tiny actions can have a big effect! Discover new ways to support each other and create your own support chain.
Note to leader: This activity gets Guides to think about how to challenge discrimination in places that are safe to them (Guides and school). If they want to learn more about how to safely challenge discrimination in other settings, book a peer education session on the Girlguiding website and try out the Safe the world resource.
Want to understand more about inclusion? Check out the Including all training on our new learning platform. If you receive any disclosures or have a concern for welfare, follow the A Safe Space guidance.
Step by step
Before you start: Write out a set of the inclusion questions (after step 5) for each Patrol.
1
Everyone grab a copy of the bingo card and a pen, it’s time to see how well you know your unit! Get moving round your space. When you pass a Guide, see if you can find a bingo square that you both have in common. Or use a free space to choose something you both have in common. Once you have completed a row (in any direction) shout out bingo to win!
2
Did you learn anything new about anyone in your unit? Can you find one thing that everyone has in common? It can’t be that you’re all Guides!
There are lots of things we all have in common, just as there are lots of ways in which we’re all different to each other. Everything from where we come from, or how we look, to the hobbies we enjoy, make us who we are. Sometimes people are excluded or treated differently because of who they are - this is discrimination.
3
In your Patrol, share what you know about discrimination and how it can affect different people. For example, did you know that it used to be legal in the UK to ban women from certain jobs once they were married?
4
Throughout history people have protested for equality and an end to discrimination. The suffragettes fought for women’s right to vote in the UK, the American civil rights movement demanded an end to racism in the United States, and in the 1990s hundreds of disabled protesters took to the streets of London to demand an end to discrimination against people with disabilities. Do you know any other protests for equality?
When we think about ending discrimination, we often think about activists protesting for change. But there are so many small everyday actions we can take to make our own communities more equal and inclusive
5
Get into Patrols and find a space. Grab pens, glue, scissors, four different colours of paper (a few sheets of each) and the four inclusion questions.
Inclusion questions
- How can you make someone new feel welcome in your unit?
- What can you do if you think someone is being excluded or discriminated against?
- What could your school or Guide unit do to tackle discrimination and make sure everyone feels supported?
- Why is it important to support and include others?
6
Get ready, when your leader says ‘go’, cut the paper into strips, write down as many answers to the first inclusion question as you can onto individual strips.
Start gluing them together into a paper chain. You’ve got five minutes for each question; your leader will tell you when to move on. Use a different colour of paper for each question. Can your group make the longest chain?
7
Join all the Patrols’ chains together and make a circle with everyone holding the chain. Take turns reading out a couple of the ideas for each question. What’s something that you’re going to try and do?
Take it further
Choose your four favourite ideas and make them into your own mini support chain to take home to remind you of all the ways we can support each other.