7/28/2004 A break from tradition : Girl Scouts reach out to girls in Minneapolis's Hmong, Latino and Somali communities
Kelly Westhoff
At 26, Zoua Vu is too old to be a girl scout, but she is not too old to remember what it was like to be a Hmong girl growing up in the Twin Cities: "It is difficult to be caught in between two cultures and you think, "How do I adjust to both?'"
This is one of the reasons why Vu has taken on the task of becoming a Girl Scout troop leader for 250 Hmong girls in the Minneapolis metro area.
Vu's official title is outreach coordinator for the Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis (GSCGM). Her official duty is to introduce Girl Scouts to the Hmong community. During the school year, Vu travels between nine different schools and leads Girl Scout meetings for Hmong girls at each. Nine troops, 250 girls and double the parents‹that's a lot to juggle. "No one in the office ever sees me!" she laughed. "I am never there!"
Vu's Girl Scout troops aren't run in typical Girl Scout fashion, either‹at least not the fashion many women remember from their own Girl Scout days. "We don't do sashes and badges and we do not sell cookies!" Vu announced. Increasingly, the Girl Scout organization in Minneapolis is adapting to the needs of the metro area's changing populations. Troop meetings often consist of in-depth discussions about drug abuse, eating disorders and suicide‹issues many Hmong girls face today.
"This gives them a chance to be with other Hmong girls and talk about their struggles and their issues," Vu said.
Vu's work with the Girl Scouts and the Hmong community started two years ago. The first year, Vu's troop members were high school and middle school girls. During the past school year, she started a troop for 15 elementary school girls.
Troops meet weekly during the school day. The meetings rotate through the school schedule so that members don't miss the same class each week. "We talk a lot about culture and Hmong traditions," Vu explained. The older girls, especially, are interested in learning to walk the fine line between being Hmong and being American. Should they pursue college? Should they live on their own? Should they marry early?
Vu admits her approach to Girl Scouts is not traditional, but the traditional approach was simply not attractive to a lot of Hmong girls. In fact, the traditional Girl Scouting approach hasn't been attractive to many of Minneapolis's immigrant communities.
Janet Breidigam, vice president of membership for the GSCGM, said that, locally, the Girl Scouts were failing to attract Hmong, Latina, Muslim and Somali girls. Caucasian girls made up the majority of local Girl Scout troops and there was a reason for that: their families and communities were simply more familiar with the idea of Girl Scouts.
"A lot of times," Breidigam shared, "we can send out fliers in a neighborhood and a bunch of interested people show up. We go right into organizing troops and getting troops started. But in [immigrant] communities, we've really had to back up and say, "Okay, how do we build their awareness of Girl Scouts? And how do we build our awareness of their community?'"
Part of that awareness has led the GSCGM to reexamine its language and the way troops are run and organized. It's not enough, Breidigam said, to tell immigrant community leaders and parents that their daughters will "have fun" in Girl Scouts. Instead, she needs to explain exactly what "have fun" means.
In addition, she has had to explain the values that Girl Scouts hold. The Girl Scout Law, for example, promotes honesty, conservation of resources, responsibility for words and actions, respect for authority, respect for others and respect for self.
"These are the values that we all want to instill in our growing girls," Breidigam said. "This is our connection. But we have to get that out there so that people see that those values are the same."
"It's not about telling [parents] all about how we have this great program for their daughters and they should join," she added. "Instead it's about how we have this great program and we see it matches your concerns."
But the Girl Scouts haven't just had to convince parents to allow their daughters to participate. The organization has long depended on parents to volunteer to lead troops. Since many immigrant parents are unfamiliar with the Girl Scouts, they feel uncertain about taking on a leadership role. That's why GSCGM has turned to Vu and other outreach coordinators: they are able to introduce the idea of leading Girl Scout troops in the Hmong, Hispanic, Somali and Muslim communities.
Vu and other coordinators act as troop leaders until parents feel more comfortable taking over leadership roles.
In Chaska, a group of Latina girls has been meeting for the past three years. Bilingual social workers have been leading the group; parents have been involved as volunteers. But now, Breidigam said, the time seems right to ask the parents to assume leadership for the troop. "The parents have been coming and helping and watching. Now they understand what girl scouting is doing for their daughters," Breidigam said.
"If the parents can see it and touch it, if they can understand and value it, then they want to help," she added. Similar changes are taking place for a troop of Somali girls meeting at Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis. Their mothers have been participating in troop events and are now expressing interest in leading meetings.
"This really is a different way of working for us," Breidigam acknowledged. "We really have shifted how we operate and are pursuing some new opportunities." As testament to these new opportunities, Breidigam pointed to GSCGM's partnership with the Hmong Women's Circle.
The Hmong Women's Circle is a St.Paul-based organization that started about six years ago. It is run by Hmong women and works to promote cultural values and education initiatives for Hmong women.
In the years since its inception, the Hmong Women's Council has developed a presence wherever there is a sizable Hmong community in the United States. When the Council created an educational program for Hmong girls a few years ago, it sought out organizations that could help bring the program to girls. They contacted the Girl Scouts, who jumped at the chance.
The partnership with Hmong Women's Council helps explain why the troops Vu leads don't always follow traditional Girl Scout procedures. It may also explain why Vu's got 250 Hmong girls under her wing, when two years ago there were none.
During those two years, Vu has become more than a troop leader. She has become a role model, a friend, a support system and an inspiration. "The girls tell me," Vu beamed, ""I want to do exactly what you do, Zoua.'"
If any of Vu's troop members do grow up and become Girl Scout troop leaders, it will make Vu proud. Then she would have fulfilled another one of her duties: encouraging community members to become Girl Scout leaders themselves.
But until then, Vu is content. "For myself," she said, "I have grown so much in these last two years. I know that a lot of these girls go through the same things I went through. I can relate to them, I can understand. And it feels good that I am here."
