Autumn Carter tried to register her 12-year-old daughter, Ava, for Girl Scouts but was unsuccessful. She said she didn’t hear back after calling the association twice and couldn’t find information about active troops online.
The problem is that there aren’t many troops near where she lives on the Far Eastside.
Now Carter is among a growing group of parents and community leaders who are concerned that the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana are overlooking the neighborhood. They’ve lost trust in the organization after the disappearance of programs and an overall lack of presence by the Girl Scouts in the neighborhood.
“I’m looking for a troop, but I’m also looking for partnership and transparency,” Carter, 35, told Mirror Indy.
The concerns date back to 2021, when community members started asking to speak with the organization. The rift has grown so large that even a former Girl Scouts vice president criticized the organization for cutting programs for Black and brown girls over what she said were revenue concerns.
Hearing those concerns, the Far Eastside Community Council and Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE) helped arrange a meeting April 16 with dozens of parents and Girl Scouts officials.
At the meeting, parents complained about a lack of troops on the Far Eastside, lackluster recruitment efforts, disappearing programs and lack of diversity within the Scouts. Parents’ concerns, though, were only further fueled by what they considered a lack of communication, lack of working with the community and lack of awareness about the Far Eastside.
“We just want our girls to have the same opportunities and experiences as everyone else,” said Jamarro Johnson, director of youth and family services at CAFE and treasurer of the Far Eastside Community Council.
Parents who attended that April meeting left with the feeling that the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana hadn’t specifically addressed their concerns, a feeling further fueled by the fact many already believe the Far Eastside is a neglected area.
“I felt like the conversation that was being had was almost degrading,” Carter said. “They agreed to the conversation, and then during the conversation, they were not able to specifically speak to the concerns or the questions that some of the parents have raised.”
Parents remain concerned after a follow-up meeting July 16. Only a handful of people showed up, which community members said was the result of a lack of promotion and collaboration with neighborhood organizations. But, by the end of the meeting, some community leaders left feeling like some progress had been made.
Danielle Shockey, who has been CEO of the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana since 2018, tearfully acknowledged that the organization has work to do to regain trust on the Far Eastside.
“Somewhere along the way, without malice, we’ve lost your trust,” Shockey said at the July 16 meeting. “And I am sorry. I’m absolutely sorry. We made changes at Girl Scouts, but we didn’t do that to leave anybody behind, we did them to grow Girl Scouts.”
Diversity is a concern
The concerns on the Far Eastside aren’t the only to be raised about the organization recently.
As first reported by WFYI, CAFE, Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Coalition of 100 Black Women criticized the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, saying the organization wasn’t doing a good enough job of reaching Black girls as the organization was seeking to open a charter school in Washington Township.
A former member of the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana’s executive team also wrote a community letter accusing the organization of microaggressions from staff and using Black and brown girls as tokens for marketing pictures.
In the letter, former vice president of program and property Diana Keely said programs created to diversify Girl Scouts that would have benefited the Far Eastside were cut because they were no longer a priority for Girl Scouts of Central Indiana. Keely told Mirror Indy she believes the programs were cut because they didn’t generate enough money.
Keely doesn’t believe Girl Scouts of Central Indiana intentionally ignored the Far Eastside. Instead, Keely — who is white — thinks the ramifications are a result of a lack of diversity on the organization’s majority white executive leadership team. She said the Girl Scouts started putting less emphasis on these types of outreach programs once Shockey became CEO six years ago.
“I don’t think it was strategic,” Keely said. “It’s just no awareness to it, because you don’t have anyone challenging you, and that’s why you gotta start from the top and have a diverse team up on top that can challenge you.”
She referenced Pearls, a Girl Scout program where paid staff members — instead of volunteers — would go to apartment buildings or community centers to lead troops in areas that might face barriers to traditional programming.
Keely said the majority of fundraising comes from cookie sales. But programs like Pearls cost the organization more money than they were bringing in.
Girl Scouts wanted sustainable programs
Shockey told Mirror Indy that the $4.2-million grant from Lilly Endowment that funded Pearls from 2015 to spring 2018 ended around the time she became CEO.
“When we looked at long-term sustainability, quality, year-round experience with ideally, a volunteer that wants to stay with the troop, it didn’t have those aspects,” Shockey said.
Shockey said Pearls was similar to the backpack troops the organization currently offers. With backpack troops, Girl Scout staff members go to schools to run activities for a few weeks. But rather than being full-time troops, the backpack initiative focuses on short-term programming and activities.
Shockey acknowledged that the relationships families likely had with Pearls leaders no longer existed with the short-term backpack troop program.
Some community members say the backpack troops are not enough. And families are often unaware Girl Scouts facilitate the workshops and activities because a full-time troop is not involved.
“They’re two completely different things,” said Johnson. “One is a fully serviced, full functioning troop. Then the other one is like a watered down, school-based version of it. That’s not equitable.”
Johnson acknowledged working parents on the Far Eastside might struggle to volunteer. He noted many work multiple jobs and face transportation barriers. And, he said, even parents who do want to volunteer don’t necessarily have leadership experience. They might be more comfortable helping if they were offered training.
But it shouldn’t be on the community to solve those problems, Johnson said. They could use help from organizations such as the Girl Scouts.
“Girl Scouts has the resources, they have the opportunity to impact the young ladies and the youth of this community,” he said. “And our youth need those experiences. Our youth should be afforded those same opportunities and access.”
He said Girl Scouts needs to work with the community to find a solution.
“The community is receptive, they’re open,” Johnson said. “You just have to be intentional with how you engage them.”
Far Eastsiders feel unvalued
Community leaders say Shockey committed to making things better, but there have been notable missteps along the way that have further eroded some trust.
In the weeks following the April meeting, Shockey had committed to update Far Eastside neighborhood leaders about what Girl Scouts of Central Indiana was doing.
But in an email Shockey sent in May obtained by Mirror Indy, she listed troops that had members who lived on the east side. But that list included troops in Castleton and New Palestine.
Far Eastsiders responded by sending her back an email that crossed out all of the troops that were not actually located in the Far Eastside neighborhood or had incorrect information like ZIP codes or names of sites. Only 28 of the 74 troops listed remained.
The Girl Scouts also, at the July meeting, seemed unaware of Far Eastside neighborhood boundaries. Community members explained it’s generally considered from 46th Street to the north, Carroll Road to the east, Shadeland Avenue to the west and Washington Street to the south.
Then there was the emailed photo.
In June, Shockey sent Far Eastsiders an email that highlighted a swim lesson program held in partnership with the Wheeler-Dowe Boys & Girls Club in Martindale Brightwood on the east side.
The email included a photo of several young girls in their swimsuits, which some in the community thought was inappropriate.
Not feeling valued, Far Eastsiders again emailed Shockey on July 1 with those concerns.
“We have heard from several community members who have received this email and are upset that this picture was included as it is careless and dangerous,” read an email from the Far Eastside Community Council. “What was your point in including the picture? Was it for us to see that you are serving 13 Black girls for a private program internal to the Boys and Girls Club?”
Samantha Douglas, president of the Far Eastside Community Council, said a lot of these issues could have been avoided if the Scouts had worked more closely with community advocates.
“Just don’t take steps without us, and then we won’t have these problems where we have to course correct,” she said.
Moving forward
While the meetings didn’t go as Shockey planned, she still thinks the experience was productive and she wants the Girl Scouts to be more active on the Far Eastside.
She planned to give a presentation on how to do that at the July meeting, but when she began hearing from community leaders she altered course. Instead, she and other members of her leadership team spent nearly two hours listening to concerns about how to better collaborate with the community.
“We could really talk to everyone and listen,” Shockey said.
And now, with that input, the organization hopes it’s ready to move forward to improve its relationship with the community.
The plans include an advisory board of community members, more troops in schools and professional development opportunities for people interested in becoming troop leaders. The coalition also will sponsor the Far Eastside Community Council’s taco Tuesday event Sept. 24.
So far, community leaders and parents are cautiously optimistic about what they are hearing. Carter, though, still hasn’t found a troop for her Ava.
“We have so many young ladies who are just gems,” Carter said. “And so to be able to foster that relationship would be absolutely amazing.”
Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian.
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