Blog / June 6th, 2023
Our impact highlights for 2022
We’re delighted to be sharing our 2022 impact report! We’d like to begin with a big thank you to all our staff and members here at Girlguiding Anglia. While the impact of the pandemic is apparent, guiding in Anglia has certainly bounced back this year and our activities, events and opportunities highlight the special place and impact Girlguiding can have.
This article is a round-up of the top stories from the 4 pillars of our Together We Inspire strategy: members’ experience, members’ voices, delivery of guiding, and resource and capacity. We are proud to share all that we have achieved as a region, and you can read more about our impact in these 4 core areas in our full 2022 impact report.
Members’ experience impact highlight: Super Rainbows 2022
In 2022, Girlguiding Anglia set out on a mission to remind Rainbows that they are super and can do anything. The project idea was an event in a box, delivering everything that a unit would need to run an exciting event, even if the country went back into a COVID lockdown.
Due to the accessibility of the Super Rainbow box, over 4750 girls joined in the fun. This is the highest number of Rainbows recorded taking part in a region section event. Even units in Girlguiding Scotland and Sweden placed orders for the event boxes!
The team also opened orders to parents of Rainbows on the waiting list. This was the first time an offer like this was made, with a brilliant response of over 250 boxes ordered, allowing prospective Rainbows to get a taste of Girlguiding and earn their first badge.
We also, for the first time, set up an event-specific Facebook page to engage leaders and support effective communication between the volunteer team and grassroots leaders.
Read more about our impact on members’ experience in our full 2022 impact report.
Members’ voices impact highlight: Celebrating our patron in 2022
Platinum Jubilee
During the celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee, Helen Green, at Girlguiding Norfolk county’s Archive Resource Centre (ARC), featured on the BBC. Helen answered question and shared information about the Queen’s historical connection with Girlguiding. The filming took place in Stalham, Norfolk, with Rainbows, Guides and Rangers from local units in attendance.
Jubilee beacon lighting
We were lucky enough to host one of the 70 beacons that were given to Girlguiding to celebrate the Jubilee. The beacon was lit at the home of Girlguiding Anglia, Hautbois Activity Centre, and we celebrated alongside members from across the region with fireworks, food and fun.
The passing of our patron
With the sad passing of our late patron Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we were quick to respond with our support for the royal family and to pay our respects. At region and county level, we implemented a social media blackout, sharing the message: ‘It is with profound sadness that we at Girlguiding have learned today of the death of our Patron, Her Majesty the Queen. Our deepest sympathies are with the Royal Family at this very sad time.’
Our members had the opportunity to share their memories and stories of Queen Elizabeth II. Many also volunteered to support Girlguiding’s involvement in the funeral proceedings. Region members paid their respects in many ways, from visiting Sandringham to lay flowers, to queueing for many hours to see Queen Elizabeth II laying in state.
For more information on Girlguiding Anglia’s experience following the passing of our Patron, including photographs, interviews and press coverage, please visit our article.
Our retail team supported the region with sales of the commemorative badges released by Girlguiding throughout 2022.
Read more about our impact on members’ voices in our full 2022 impact report.
Delivery of guiding impact highlight: Together we inspire
Almost 400 of our volunteers responded to our first region Together We Inspire membership survey. They shared how they’d celebrated the 50th birthday of Girlguiding Anglia, and also their thoughts and ideas on future projects. We were most interested in how they thought we could support them to deliver great guiding experiences.
From a region website slider, to the newsletter, across social media and in our email footer, we made sure to share the survey in various ways. We also included a QR code for the questionnaire on our World Thinking Day postcards. Over 3000 were sent out to all our units. We found this was the most inclusive way to reach our members, as we still have many who don’t use social media or have access to a computer.
To respond to the data we collected, we ran a series of posts on social media in the countdown to the Easter holidays, with the theme ‘you said, we heard’. Through doing this, we demonstrated to our members that their voices had been heard and what they had shared was informing future projects and decisions.
Read more about our impact on our delivery of guiding in our full 2022 impact report.
Resource and capacity impact highlight: Region and counties one team
Every year we hold a region conference as an opportunity for our chief commissioner to bring everyone together. They use the day to review resources, analyse data, promote informed decision-making, and facilitate a one-team with volunteers and staff.
2022’s region conference, Anglia shines bright, took place in October. A strong focus for the day was to reflect on the turbulent years of 2020/21. The team also wanted to move forward with the messaging: be brave/be bold. The conference focused heavily on strategic planning, including challenges and upcoming opportunities.
A few sessions focused on capturing feedback from attendees and reminding attendees of Girlguiding Anglia’s Together We Inspire strategy. The team considered any comments given and they were later used when producing the 2023 business plans. There was a further session on grants, which included 2022 funding and looking ahead to 2023.
County support
2022 saw the recruitment a county administrator, fully supported and managed by the region team. By the end of 2022, three counties had each signed up to 7 hours of administrative support each week. Both the region and counties saw huge benefits from this role being centralised.
We’ve been working to support counties with graphics and artwork to ensure brand consistency at all levels in Anglia region. This included the introduction of both photo and graphics image banks. It also included an expansion of an area on the website for PR and recruitment stand resources to support counties and grassroots.
There was a fantastic uptake of the resources in quarter 4 and we imagine higher download numbers moving forward into 2023 as members attend more events. We’re always moving towards better brand awareness and making Girlguiding Anglia a more sustainable area of Girlguiding, and supporting our counties to do the same.
Read more about our impact on resource and capacity in our full 2022 impact report.
Girlguiding Anglia retail shop
In 2022, your incredible retail team continued to support members with programme support and quick turnaround of orders. There were regular Facebook posts and features in the Signpost newsletter to let members know of new products and updates.
To assist with this, the team implemented royal mail click and drop for 1st and 2nd class mail, and Apple and Google pay in the shop. Click and drop has provided a direct link to website orders via WooCommerce, streamlining the postal service. It has also facilitated professional labelling, tracking and automated invoicing.
1658 customers placed a shop order on the website in 2022. Of which, 503 shopped with us more than once 17 shopped with us more than 10 times. The team saw a total of over 65,750 items purchased online in 2022. Website gross sales in 2022 were £88,692, and total gross sales for 2022 were £228,225 – an increase of approximately 30% on 2021’s figures.
Badges were exceptionally popular, as always. New badges for 2022 included 30 and 40 nights away badges, the Winter Quest badge, Chief’s Challenge badge and Warm Welcome badge. The total number of badges sold in 2022 was over 126,500. Badges took 9 spaces in the top 10 products of 2022 for the retail shop – see the full list in our full 2022 impact report.
Hautbois Activity Centre
2022 saw a record-breaking summer for Hautbois Activity Centre. July had the highest income, bringing in more than the winter months combined! Activity participation figures for 2022 were 45,485, with a final bookings income of £806,583.
What does this mean for Girlguiding members? The number of Girlguiding members on site throughout 2022 totalled 6190. A third of all visitors to Hautbois in 2022 were Girlguiding members! In 2022, over 100 adult members took part in outdoor training sessions at Hautbois funded by Generation Green. This included, canoeing, paddleboarding, archery, outdoor first aid, campfires and much more. Giving our members the confidence to pass their newly acquired expertise on to thousands of girls.
The activity centre team saw regular ongoing maintenance and improvements to the estate. This has included re-wilding some areas, planting hundreds of trees, creating new hedgerows, and encouraging our water meadow to revert to its natural state.
There were also activity updates in many areas on site. The nightline course in particular, has seen an update which includes improved obstacles. Alongside the activity areas themselves, documents for the centre’s pond dipping, 90 challenge, initiative tests and junior orienteering have been updated and transferred to non-paper-based resources for durability.
To read more about Hautbois Activity Centre in 2022, head over to read the full article in our 2022 impact report.
What’s next for Girlguiding Anglia?
2023 holds some incredible opportunities to build on public relations, brand awareness and the charity’s sustainability. We can’t wait to get stuck in! As always, we’ll be having plenty of adventures, finding new friendships, and having exceptional experiences. Plus we’ll be welcoming new volunteers and young members into the Girlguiding Anglia family.
Look out on our website and social media channels to keep up with the stories as they unfold. Join us for next year’s impact report to see all the highlights of what will be an amazing year for Girlguiding Anglia.