Leaders’
lives now
Many members of Girlguiding are also key workers doing their very best to keep the country running. In this short series, we’re asking them about how the pandemic has changed their jobs and lives. How are they coping – and is there anything they’ve learned that has affected the way they think about guiding?
A huge thank you to everyone who responded to the request for stories for this series – you are an inspiration to us all
“We’re setting the Brownies a challenge each week to do a different part of an interest badge. So they’re still doing it on their own, but we’re giving them that encouragement”
Zoe Parton
Children’s A&E play specialist and Leader, 3rd Clanfield Brownies and 1st Denvilles Rainbows
It’s been really important for me to carry on my guiding during this time. I think of it as my chill-out time, because work can be quite stressful. My job involves helping children through their journey in the A&E department, preparing them for procedures – that could be CT scans, blood tests, x-rays, plaster casts or even just a basic set of observations – by giving them things to do while they’re waiting, and just making the environment less scary. In A&E you never know quite what’s going to come through the door next, so it’s very much about thinking on your feet.
Things are very different at the moment. We only have two or three toys in our waiting rooms, and no books. We all wear masks constantly, and we have aprons and gloves on if we’re seeing a patient. A lot of my job is distracting children while they’re sitting on the bed, so whereas before we might have got out some Lego or a train set, we can’t use any of that at the minute because it’s not as easy to clean. So we’ve had to think around what we can do, like using laminated posters instead of our usual distraction books, and buying some bubble machines, because you can’t blow bubbles through a mask! I’m lucky that my shifts work around Girlguiding – I’ve always been able to go to meetings. My Brownie unit is actually the one I was in as a child. I was moving back to the area and looking for a unit to join, and someone told me it was closing as there was no leader – I couldn’t let that happen! So I took it over, and then opened up a Rainbow unit too. My fellow leader Karen is also a key worker, and for both of us it’s been really important to keep in touch with what we normally do. We’re both really missing it. We didn’t know each other before guiding, but we’ve become the best of friends.
Just as we were going into lockdown, Karen and I put together little packs for the girls. All my Rainbows live local to me, so I dropped their packs through their letterboxes, and then we sent packs out to the Brownies with an adapted skills builder to do at home. We’re setting them a challenge each week to do a different part of an interest badge. So they’re still doing it on their own, but we’re giving them that encouragement. I managed to get hold of some award certificates and laminate them, and each week I hold up the certificate for whoever’s achieved something. That’s the thing they’re most excited about. We’re running virtual meetings each week, and it’s going well: we’ve had 14 out of 19 Rainbows, and 11 out of 19 Brownies. We’ve got one little girl who was meant to join this term who’s started straight on to Zoom with us, and she’s taken to it. Although I must say, I don’t know who’s more scared – me or the girls! The feedback we’re getting from parents is that the girls love it. And of course the parents are giving up their time too to sit there with them. One of my Rainbows is always the last to say goodbye because she doesn’t want to go – she had tears in her eyes the first night – and her mum says it’s the best thing she’s done. It’s that kind of thing that reminds me why I wanted to be a leader in the first place – and why it’s important to keep guiding going through these challenging times.
Lance Corporal Laura Soall
Army Musician and Assistant Leader, 1st Winchester City West Guides
Dealing with changing situations beyond our control is something the Army faces every day. So I feel like I’ve been equipped to deal with these unprecedented and unusual times by the military. I’m a musician in the British Army. I’m a trained soldier, but my primary role is to play at events all across the UK and the world. I’m involved in State Ceremonial events such as the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, as well as military tattoos, passing-out parades for new recruits, concerts and also community engagement, working with schools and organisations like Girlguiding. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to turn my hobby into a career. I joined a marching band when I was about 10, and we often worked alongside military bands, so that was what inspired me to join the Army. I’ve been involved in Girlguiding since I was young, too. I was a very shy child, but Rainbows helped me to come out of my shell. I went through Brownies and Guides, and didn’t want to leave, so I became a young leader at my Guide group. I had a few years off when I joined the Army, but once I was settled in military life, I really wanted to do something outside of work.
Most of the events I work on with the Army involve the public, so as lockdown began, they were all cancelled. Initially I was working from home, practising and maintaining my skills, and keeping fit. Then a couple of months back I was told that I was needed to help provide guard duty to our existing Guard Service. Every military camp is guarded to protect the people and property inside, and with a number of the usual guards needing to self-isolate, they were left short. So I very quickly came back in, completed the necessary training and then was sent off to do my guard duty, patrolling the camp and checking people coming in through the gate. The guard duty couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Much as I’d enjoyed being at home and having the time to do different things, I was missing the structure and routine that Army life gives you. It’s nice to feel a sense of purpose and that I’m doing something for the community, so my friends and I were really happy to get this opportunity to do something different and guard an Army camp. I’m missing my job, the travelling and the events – some of the engagements I had planned during this period were really exciting – as well as the social side of it. By the nature of what I do, I see and interact with a lot of people, so it’s been very strange.
There are many similarities between Army life and Girlguiding. The sense of belonging and the ability to work together definitely stick out as the two most important ones to me. The girls are always encouraged to work together and try new challenges – just like we do in the Army. I think the skills I learnt from the military have helped during lockdown, as I was taught to deal with many different and quickly changing situations. I am fortunate to travel a lot in the Army, and without always knowing much about the places I’m going to, I can quickly adapt to the new situations I find myself in. I’m very much looking forward to getting back to guiding. The summer term is the girls’ favourite time of year because they get to do so much outdoors, so it’s a shame they’re missing out on all that. We were planning to take them downhill donutting the week that lockdown kicked in, so I imagine the first thing they’ll ask is when they can go! I’m just looking forward to getting back to it as soon as it’s safe to do so. It will be interesting to see how the girls have coped, and their different experiences of being at home. Even though they’re all roughly the same age, every single one of them will have had a different experience during this time. One of my favourite parts about volunteering with Girlguiding is that I get the reward of seeing the girls achieve and develop. Volunteering not only gives me a sense of purpose, but also a chance to give something back to my community. I’ve really benefitted from Girlguiding – it helped me become who I am today, and by volunteering, I’m able to give that chance to many other girls.
“There are many similarities between Army life and Girlguiding. The sense of belonging and the ability to work together stick out as the two most important”
“One of my favourite parts of guiding is watching how different girls thrive. Particularly the shyer and quieter ones, because that’s who I was”
Quita Harkess
Emergency medical adviser and Leader, 5th Hove Guides
I work for the ambulance service as an emergency medical adviser. My job involves triaging calls to assess what’s happening and advise on the best thing to do. Not all calls end in us sending an ambulance – if you’ve cut your finger, it might be more appropriate to deal with it at home or seek a doctor’s help. We’ve seen a big change over the past few months. We aren’t getting as many calls at the moment, and hospitals are reporting lower numbers of people taking themselves in. One positive is that we’re seeing fewer people calling for smaller problems. Although we are getting a lot of what I call ‘bank holiday incidents’ from people doing DIY at home – putting their backs out, falling off ladders and hammering things through their fingers!
Nobody wants to go to hospital at the moment, and that’s really hard because we know people are still having big serious things like heart attacks and strokes – coronavirus doesn’t stop that happening. I just hope people aren’t suffering alone at home when they should be seeking help – people should always call 999 for an ambulance if they’re facing a potentially serious emergency. I’ve been managing to keep in contact with my Guides, too. We’ve been doing virtual meetings, so I’m still getting to speak to them and do the activities. We’re listening to the girls and getting their feedback on what they want to do. Next week they’ve asked to do some wellbeing activities, so we’ll be trying some yoga and meditation. They love a fun game element too, so recently we did a Generation Game-type conveyor belt where they had to write down as many things as they could remember.
We’re looking everywhere for inspiration – Facebook, Girlguiding. We love the unit meeting activities that have been posted because they’re easy to do. And the Facebook group has been great, with other leaders recommending ways to adapt a unit meting activity or skills builder so that it can be done remotely. Before lockdown I managed to take our craft box home, so if anyone needs materials they can just get in touch. We made pom-poms for VE Day and a couple of the parents contacted me to say they didn’t have wool, so I jogged round on my daily exercise with a couple of balls of wool and delivered it to their doorsteps. It’s also been nice to have the facility just to chat. Our girls aren’t the most talkative bunch, but they keep coming back, so we must be doing something right! One of my favourite parts of guiding is watching how different girls thrive. Particularly the shyer and quieter ones, because that’s who I was. There’s one girl I’ve known since she was a Brownie, and she’s just gone to Oxford University. She was this tiny little shy thing who barely let go of her mum’s leg, and now she’s at Oxford. It’s about helping them come out of their shells and get what they want out of the experience. I love my job. I love helping people. I feel very proud when I’ve got my uniform on. It’s been nice to still have the routine of going to work, to be able to get out and see people. I’m lucky to be able to keep contact with my Guides, too, and even though I miss seeing the girls in person, what I get out of guiding hasn’t changed, and that’s watching them grow.
Erica Cowley
Supermarket worker and Assistant Leader, 1st Moreton-in-Marsh Brownies and 2nd Moreton-in-Marsh Rainbows
I’ve worked at a local supermarket for a few years now, and I’ve done different jobs around the store – I’ve worked on the deli counter, as a cashier and, just before lockdown, I was in the coffee shop. Now that it’s not open, I’ve moved to the home delivery department. We’re only a small chain and we’re quite old school, so we don’t have an online shop – our order system involves ringing the customer the afternoon before to take their order, then picking it, packing it and helping to load the van.
Most of our customers are in the vulnerable category, and sometimes all they really want is a conversation. So it’s nice to be able to have a natter with them before taking their order. If they’re on their own, it’s that little bit of human connection. We might be the only people they’re speaking to that day. I’m getting to see quite a few of my Rainbows and Brownies every so often when they pop into the shop, too. It’s lovely to be able to catch up with them. They’re really missing it. We’re quite a rural area and our girls come from a few different schools, so they have friends they only see at meetings. I don’t think I’d be coping if I was in complete lockdown – I’m one of those people who has to be doing something all the time. I’m currently keeping myself busy at the weekends when I’m not working by making cushions out of old Girlguiding uniforms. I’ve been helping out with guiding since I did my bronze Duke of Edinburgh when I was 14 or 15. It gives me something that’s completely different from my work. It’s nice to be able to join in with whatever activity the girls are doing, whether it’s crafts, science experiments or them just asking questions. I was quite shy when I was younger, so being an assistant leader has given me a real confidence boost. It’s helped me develop skills and inspired me to take on new roles: I’m now the 18-30 coordinator for our area, and I was looking forward to going on my first international trip in the summer, to the European Jamboree in Gdańsk, Poland.
We’re keeping in touch with the parents of our Rainbows and Brownies via our private Facebook group, sending through all the Adventures at home activities, and finding different badges for the girls to try. The girls are all busy with badges and bits at home, and they’re sending our leader lots of pictures of what they’re up to. And a lot of them have been getting involved in the painted pebbles and rocks that are all over our town. The girls have had time to reflect and slow down a bit, which is a positive thing. Especially for older Guides who might have homework, exams and anything else they do – sometimes there’s just not enough time for badges too, so hopefully they’re finding a bit more time for guiding now. I think if this situation has taught me anything, it’s that if something doesn’t get done today, it can be done tomorrow. It’s also about adapting. It’s a good lesson for all of us, but also in terms of the programme, adapting unit meeting activities and skills builders so the girls can still do them at home. We’ve learned that we can do things differently and make it work.
“If this situation has taught me anything, it’s that if something doesn’t get done today, it can be done tomorrow”
“The message is that it’s OK not to be OK. That’s something we can translate into guiding – building some space to just talk to the girls and do very relaxed things”
Tina Benson
COO of The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Leader, 1st South Ruislip Guides
As chief operating officer, I’m responsible for working with my team to deliver all of the clinical services in our two hospitals. The way we run the hospitals has changed in response to Covid-19. Whereas before we had a real mix of activity, at the moment we’re only really doing urgent and emergency activity. And so all our staff, including me, have been doing different jobs to those we’d usually be doing. We’ve had to set up new things really quickly, such as Skype, and enabling our clinicians to do some of their work from home. Big changes that would usually take months have been carried out in a couple of weeks, but I’m happy to say they’ve been very successful. Of course, it’s the same picture with Girlguiding – we’re sending the girls things to do, suggesting badges they might want to try at home, and just generally keeping in touch and making sure they’re alright. At work, there’s a lot of camaraderie and support. Our health and wellbeing strategy has moved forward leaps and bounds, as has our partnership-working with GPs and local authorities, so that’s a huge positive. We’ve had a lot of support from external agencies around things like mindfulness apps, and the public support has been brilliant too. I think it’s really embedded hospitals in the local communities.
I’ve worked in the NHS for 25 years and I’ve always loved my job, but it’s made me even more conscious that it was the right career choice for me all those years ago! I had Covid-19 and was a patient in my own hospital for a week, and the staff were amazing. They’re all so positive. My guiding family have been hugely supportive too. I’ve had lots of messages, particularly when I wasn’t well, and seeing the posters in people’s windows really cheers me up when I go for a run in the morning. The next phase for us is thinking about how we maximise the opportunities we’ve been given. It’s about embracing those changes, such as maintaining the virtual clinic, which clinicians and patients are telling us is fantastic. One of the big things I’ve learned is that people can do a lot more than they think they can. In guiding we always encourage people to stretch themselves, but this has pushed my approach even further. Where before I might have just encouraged gently, now I’ll really talk to them about it and use examples from this to say, ‘Look, this person was doing this, and then with a bit of support they were able to do that. And you know what? If they can do it then I’m sure you can too.’ It’s about pushing those boundaries a bit further.
The other thing that’s come through in social media and across the NHS recently is the message that it’s OK not to be OK. That’s something we can translate into guiding – building some space into the programme to just talk to the girls and do very relaxed things, rather than feeling like you’ve got to have a plan for every minute of the meeting. Being a Guide leader is something completely different to what I do at work. When I’m at Guides I can be a bit more playful! The career I have is a life choice – I’m always on duty even though I’m not always at work. Guides is the one time in my week when I genuinely forget about my job and focus on the children and their needs.
Naomi Dabney
Police staff and Leader, West Byfleet Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers
I manage the office for our local neighbourhood policing team, looking after their wants and needs, and giving them advice when they ask for it. I also look after the rotas for our response officers and neighbourhood teams, deal with social media and handle phone calls from members of the public. Due to coronavirus, I’m also sourcing and supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) for our teams. When people ask what it’s like looking after the police, I always say it’s just like looking after my Brownies and Rainbows – I feel like I’m herding frogs wherever I am!
While in some respects not much has changed in our office, I’ve got an even greater responsibility now to keep everything normal. Our teams are coming back from dealing with stressful things and letting off steam, and I’m trying to keep some stability for them. Our officers aren’t dealing with the same sort of crimes they were 10 or 12 weeks ago – it’s almost like a simpler version of policing – and I think they’re finding that strange. I hope my role has made it easier for them. It’s the same with our units: we’re trying to keep things as normal as possible. I’ve been running Brownies and Guides for over 25 years, I’ve just taken over a Rainbow unit again and I’ve got Rangers as well, so I look after all four sections. We’ve done a Zoom meeting with the Rangers, and we’re sharing both programme and Adventures at home activities with girls of all ages. We’ve got lots of WhatsApp groups with parents too, and I’ve sent them ideas and reassurances that way. Over Easter, all the families got a little craft pack that I hand-delivered on my daily walk – 74 in total. I’m lucky in that I still have a routine. I’m working full time, and things are just as hectic as normal. I usually have unit meetings three evenings a week, but now I’m spending that time sewing scrubs for the NHS and doing a walking challenge to raise money for our hut. My philosophy is, ‘If you want something done, ask a busy person.’ I have an amazing bunch of girls and leaders, and I couldn’t do any of it without them, especially the leaders. Right now, one of them is doing virtual badge testing, while another is cutting the fabric for my scrub-making and supplying my boys and girls in blue with morale-boosting cookies and cakes!
When I take girls away on camps or pack holidays, that’s when I really get to know them. In a similar way, one of the positives coming out of lockdown is that the girls are getting to spend more time with their families. While there are inevitably some frustrations at being cooped up, this situation provides an opportunity for people to learn more about each other. I miss my girls desperately. They’re a big part of my week and I’ve got an awful lot of time invested in them – anyone who knows me knows that they’re all I ever talk about! I look on them as my family. I get so excited when I see everything they’re doing and have bits of badge work sent through to me to look at. I know it may be some time yet, but I’m really looking forward to when I can return, give them all the badges they’ve earned in person and just get back to our normal routine.
“Right now, one of my leaders is doing virtual badge testing, while another is cutting the fabric for my scrub-making and supplying my boys and girls in blue with morale-boosting cookies and cakes”
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