Junior Community First! Village Patch I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. - Mother Theresa As a Junior Scout you have learned about the Girl Scout promise and law and you know that Girl Scouts try to be considerate and caring and to work to make the world a better place. You and your troop have probably done service projects to help others. Perhaps you have made toys for the animals at one of the animal shelters, or visited the elderly at a nursing home, or collected school supplies for children for the new school year or held a canned food drive for the local community food bank. Community First! Village and their parent program, Mobile Loaves & Fishes also work to make the world a better place. Their motto is serving goodness. In this patch you will learn about Community First! Village, the work that they do and how they spread goodness in our community. STEPS: Step 1: Think it out Step 2: Learn more about Community First! Village through research Step 3: Take a tour of Community First! Village Step 4: Do a service project for either Community First! Village or Mobile Loaves & Fishes Step 5: Share goodness of your own Purpose:
When I ve earned this patch I will know more about Community First! Village and the message of goodness that they spread. I will also understand more about homelessness. Step 1: Think it out Throughout your life, you may see or hear of acts of goodness. You may have even demonstrated acts of goodness yourself. As you go through this patch, you will learn more about Community First! Village, and you will also learn all about their message of goodness. Think about acts of goodness you have demonstrated in your life. When you demonstrate acts of kindness or goodness you not only bring happiness and joy to those around you, but you also can bring happiness to yourself. Talk with an adult or a friend about acts of goodness that you have demonstrated yourself, or seen throughout your life. Think about the definition of goodness. How would you describe goodness? Does goodness have to be demonstrated with certain actions? Does it have to be given to people you know, or can it be given to strangers as well? When you think about goodness what is the first thing that comes to mind? Talk about your thoughts with an adult or a friend. Think about what causes people to become homeless. You may have a belief different from a friend or a fellow scout. Community First! Village believes that the main cause of homelessness is the catastrophic loss of family. Do you agree with Community First! Village s belief? Why or why not? Discuss what you think with a friend or your troop. Step 2: Learn more about Community First! Village through research
Before you go out to Community First! Village for your tour, you need to learn more about it! On their website they have all kinds of information about not only what they do, but also about their residents, their staff, and their missionals. Go to the Community First! Village website (http://mlf.org/community-first/) to complete your research before your tour. When you finish reading through their website, you should be able to answer the following. How did Mobile Loaves & Fishes begin? Who were the founders of this organization? What or who was their inspiration behind Mobile Loaves & Fishes? Look through the website to find answers; you may even find some additional information on Youtube. What is the purpose of Community First! Village? Community First! Village provides housing and basic needs for those that are homeless, but they also provide something else that money can t buy. In what ways does Community First! Village and Mobile Loaves & Fishes spread goodness? Both organizations take part in making Austin and the world a better place, but how do they spread their message? Step 3: Take a tour of Community First! Village Visit Community First and take a tour and see how they have shared goodness first hand. This can be either a scheduled tour or you can do a self-guided tour using their scavenger hunt found on their website. When you ve finished your tour, reflect on what you learned by talking with an adult or a friend by talking about what you learned on your tour of Community First! Village. The definition of goodness. What does goodness really mean? What does Community First! Village believe the definition of goodness is? Using what you learned on the tour, talk with your friends or an adult about goodness. How many residents does Community First! Village have currently? How many does it hope to hold in the future? Community First! Village has
approximately 27 acres of land that all go towards helping the formerly homeless that live there. Step 4: Do a service project for either Community First! Village or Mobil Loaves and Fishes You ve researched about Community First! Village and taken a tour, you ve seen all of the good things they are doing, and the goodness they are spreading. Now it s your turn to give back to the community and its people. You can do these small volunteer projects by yourself or with your troop. Purchase items for the house blessing. Community First! Village does their best to make their new residents feel right at home by holding house blessing ceremonies each Saturday to make sure everyone feels like a part of the community when they move in. You can sign up to bring a basket of items on the Community First! Village website. Scroll over Get Involved and click on Events and Workshops. Scroll down until you find the house blessings to sign up. Volunteer in the garden. The gardens at Community First! Village are all maintained by the residents, and they distribute the fruit at the small farmers markets (fill in how often). Residents can even rent a small, raised garden bed to grow their own fruits and vegetables. You can call Community First! Village to ask if you can come out to work in the gardens with some of the residents one day. Step 5: Share goodness of your own Now that you ve researched and visited Community First! Village and given back to the community, it s time to continue to share the goodness. You can share goodness to those around you, even if you don t know them. Something as simple
as a smile could make someone s day better. Think about the ways you can make the world a better place. Make some bags of grace. Bags of grace contain some of the essential things a homeless person would need. All kinds of things can go into a bag of grace for example, you could just put in some cheese crackers and a pair of socks. Socks especially are good since Alan Graham, one of the founders of Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Community First! Village, said that socks are the number one thing that are needed amongst the homeless. Or if it s summer, you could put in a bottle of water as it would be greatly appreciated especially in the Texas heat. Kindness to your family. Sometimes, we don t do things the way our parents tell us to, or we argue with them. You can spread kindness and goodness to your family in many ways. Maybe one night you tell your family how thankful you are to have them in your life, or maybe you make surprise them with a homemade dessert after dinner. Keep an eye out, you may notice some change in your family atmosphere. Helping others at school. You can help some of your fellow classmates at school by carrying out small acts of goodness. Try talking to someone you ve never really talked to or invite someone to sit with you at lunch. You could even try letting someone join your group at recess. The more kindness you lend out to others, the more likely you are to receive it. Patches can be purchased at Community First! Village.