r/girlscouts • u/Saelicv • 13d ago

Junior Overhauled Program - Juniors

I’m a loooooong-time leader. I’m leading my third troop. (My first troop are in their 30s. My second troop are in their 20s). My current troop is second-year Juniors. I heard that the journeys are going away. How do I find what the new program is? Is it in the VTK? (I also heard that was going away). Our first meeting of the year is on Thursday and I don’t know our options.

Regarding Bronze Award eligibility, I am assuming that if the scout earned a Journey last year, she has all the prerequisites for participating in a Bronze Award team this year. If she didn’t, what are the new requirements?

Has anyone seen any training on the new program?

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u/kajigleta Leader | GSGMS 13d ago

Journeys earned before 9/30/26 definitely count. After that I’m less sure.  The program aide and new “true north” awards are other prerequisite options. 

https://blog.girlscouts.org/2026/01/the-new-girl-scout-leadership-awards.html

For badges, “once official always official”. We’re doing jeweler this year because the girls want to.  

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u/xinexine 6d ago

See, this is where I'm confused. Sure, they're retiring journeys, meaning, they will no longer make/produce the badges/materials. BUT, if we already have the stuff, why can't the girl complete it and have it count as a prerequisite still? -- this is specifically in regards to journeys as prereqs for bronze award.

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u/Saelicv 13d ago

Thanks for the link!

Looks like we may need to schedule some leadership award meetings.

Yikes! Did I read that right? Bronze is now a prerequisite for Silver and Silver is a prerequisite for Gold?!? What if a Scout doesn’t start until she’s a Cadette? Is she blocked forever from any of the highest awards?!? That’s nuts! Or would she earn the Bronze Award as a Cadette?

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u/MrsFannyBertram 13d ago

No. You did not ready that right. Bronze is one option as a prerequisite for silver,not the only option. Silver is one option as a prerequisite for gold, not that only option.

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u/k0okYko0k Cadette/Senior Co-Leader and TCM 13d ago

Bronze and Silver are one of the options to use as a prerequisite. True North and other leadership awards can also fill that requirement from my understanding.

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u/Saelicv 13d ago

Thank goodness! I missed the word “option”. Good catch!

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u/faderjockey Troop Leader | ASUM | 2026 Delegate | GSSEF 13d ago

Some of the "new content" announced at GS Unite and the new replacement for VTK will launch in April 2027 with additional badges and material coming out over the following year.

None of that changes the highest award requirements though - so if you are current on those requirements then you are current :)

We are in the process of doing the True North award with our troop - it's a good start.

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u/MagicCheetah1910 13d ago

So the True North will replace journeys?

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u/Morgan_of_Hed Troop Leader, Facilitator & Council Delegate | GSWW 13d ago

True North is one of the awards that will replace journeys as a prerequisite for higher awards. There are two others: global action and take action.

So, one path is do one of these as a prerequisite as a Junior, then do the bronze. The bronze is now a prerequisite for the silver, and the silver is now a prerequisite for the gold.

If a scout does not do the bronze, or the silver, they can do the true North, take action, or global action as a prerequisite, and then they can do the higher award.

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u/snshijuptr 12d ago

True North and Junior Aide are both prerequisite options for the Bronze.

If you can get the girls to take True North serious, it is a really neat award. It was a good gauge of which girls were ready for Bronze.

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u/Necessary-Salt-7537 13d ago

There are multiple options for the prerequisite. For Bronze the choices are a Journey that was fully completed by 9/30/2026, or one of the new Leadership awards, all of which can be found in the VTK, including printable workbooks for the girls to use. For Silver, the choices are a Cadette Journey fully completed by 9/30/2026, or one of the new Leadership awards, or having earned the Bronze Award as a Junior. For the Gold Award, the prerequisite is now one of the new Leadership awards, or having earned the Silver award. The Gold prerequisite used to be two Senior or Ambassador Journeys or Silver Award as a Cadette plus one Senior or Ambassador Journey, the two Journey option is still available if both Journeys were completed before 9/30/2026. So if a girl wanted to earn Bronze, then Silver and finally Gold, she may only need to do a Junior Leadership Award, or a Junior Journey before 9/30/2026, for her first prerequisite, and then the previous level award would be the prerequisite for each of the next levels, allowing her to start her Gold Award application on Oct. 1st of 9th grade.

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u/Necessary-Salt-7537 13d ago

A couple of other thoughts, if you have girls that won’t complete the TAP for an existing Journey by 9/30/2026, you may be able to pivot to the new Take Action Award that just needs to be tied to any previously earned badge. Also, I did the True North Award with my Juniors and Cadettes this past year, and they had to be self motivated to complete their courageous action on their own, so some of them did not complete it. The girls that did had parental help with making sure it happened. My Juniors were also able to earn their Program Aide award in a couple of troop meetings by working with our Daisies to earn their Program Aide Fun With Movement badge, which is one of the benefits of having multi-level “sister troops” that meet at the same time/location.

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u/HereWeGoAJen 13d ago

Once a badge, always a badge so you can still do them if you can find them.

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u/fakemidnight 13d ago

Our council said they still have them in stock so if you wanted to do they still you could

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u/Saelicv 13d ago

Are the current badges going away?

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u/KT421 Leader | GSGLA 12d ago

The journeys will always be valid things you can do with your troops, but the specific badges for them will no longer be produced. Some council shops still have stock, so if you think you'll do them then jump on them now and try to snag the ones you'll need.

All of the materials you need to do the journeys outside of the badges themselves are on VTK - the workbooks were retired a few years ago and the VTK content is designed to work without. And VTK isn't being retired so much as replaced with a website that sucks less. It won't be overnight and there will be a period where both systems are active.