The Gold Award is the highest achievement that Girl Scouts can attain. After completing other required skill-building steps, Girl Scouts in 9-12th grades may design and implement their own projects that address the root causes of issues, of national and/or global significance. Girls must write a proposal that requires them to engage others and lead a team to address their issue of concern. Each proposal has to be approved by the local Girl Scout council, and girls must invest at least 80 hours of their time to complete all steps. Gold Award projects must also be sustainable, in addition to being girl-led and relevant to the issues of our time. 

Jaeli Williams’ Gold Award project dovetailed with the 2020 Girl Scouts of USA ( GSUSA) National Civic Action, Promote the Vote. While most girls are too young to vote themselves, GSUSA launched this call to action to teach young people why voting is essential, the power they have to increase access to voting, and how they can encourage others to vote. In 2020 when voting procedures were modified to prevent the spread of Covid-19, there was an urgent need to educate voters about these new procedures. Jaeli’s specific project targeted younger adults  who typically are less likely to vote than older adults. She led a team of other youth to decide on the messages and develop videos that could be disseminated online to the target audience. Jaeli’s work demonstrates the benefits of a partnership between the League of Women Voters and GSUSA in meeting community needs.  Voting access is critical to democracy, and, motivating young adults to vote can have a lasting effect on this generation of voters.