Five years ago, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana launched a new venture called Journey World. That magical, imaginative place has hosted more than 19,000 Girl Scouts, 11,000 boys and girls from school and youth groups, and 7,000 adults - more than 37,000 people total!
Despite the many successes that percolated in that creative place, we cannot afford to invest any more dollars in the bricks and mortar space. Therefore, we have decided not to renew the Journey World lease. Operations will end on Aug. 15, and we will vacate the space by Aug. 31.
Thankfully, when one chapter closes, another usually opens. So we will focus on taking the very best of Journey World and applying those experiences to other learning opportunities for girls of all ages. You have spoken with loud and clear voices - you want more programs offered at a location near you.
Beginning in October, every program currently supported at Journey World, with the exception of the City Experience, will be offered throughout our geography at multiple Girl Scout Gathering Places and camps. Of course, we have already taken all our STEM programs out to most of our locations with fabulous success. Many service units have taken advantage of working with us to host their own "custom" STEM programs, and we will explore innovative ways in which we might be able to take the City Experience on the road to a location near you!
While all this planning for the next generation of innovative programming heats up, we will continue to offer a robust program schedule at Journey World up until Aug. 15, 2014. Please spread the word about the remaining programs and sessions happening at Journey World through August. We want to share the very best of Journey World with "standing room only" groups of girls before we launch the next phase of program delivery and innovation.
Journey World has given us the opportunity to understand what girls want, how they want to learn and how we can best deliver valuable programming in ways that will benefit them throughout their lives. As we move forward, we will strive to reach tens of thousands of additional girls with the same energy and excitement that everyone has come to expect at Journey World.
Please send any questions or comments to longrangeproperty@girlscoutsgcnwi.org.