Girl Guides of Canada launches brownies

The organization adopted a new name, Embers, for the branch after current and former members said the old one was an obstacle to membership.

Girl Guides, the Canadian equivalent of Girl Scouts, have renamed their branch Brownies in a bid to become more inclusive, after current and former members who are people of color have said the name has caused them harm. will now call Embers after an online member vote, Girl Guides of Canada announced Wednesday.

"Our vision is a better world for girls and that means for all girls,” Jill Zelmanovits, executive director of Girl Guides of Canada, said in an interview Thursday. "So if we weren't including a certain part, or if the girls felt like they didn't belong, we wanted to change so that as many girls as possible could be members of the organization."

Girl Guides announced in November that they would be retiring the Brownies name to create a more welcoming atmosphere. A few weeks later, members were invited to vote online for the new name, Embers or Comets. The organization said it has about 58,000 girl members and about 15,000 adult members, most of whom are troop leaders.

Names of other branches - Sparks, Guides, Pathfinders and The Rangers - will remain the same.

Ms. Zelmanovits said the organization first became aware of the objections on behalf of the Brownies after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd sparked global protests against racial injustice.

She said former members shared stories about not wanting their daughters to join the organization due to their own experiences with the name. Others said they joined as Sparks, left Girl Guides and then came back after Brownies, or waited to join Girl Guides until they reached an age that would allow them to join a branch other than the Brownies.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"It was a surprise to a lot of people," Ms. Zelmanovits said. "We didn't necessarily see the name from that angle as causing harm."

She said the organization was prepared to have difficult conversations about the name change and had created a guide for leaders who needed to explain it to girls in the affected branch.

"They were the ones who had less trouble with that,” Ms. Zelmanovits said. . "When the leaders sat down and started having discussions on a very basic level and said, 'Some girls your age don't feel out of place because of the name,' the girls immediately said, 'You should change it “.”

The name change will be phased in over the next few months as the organization updates its websites, training sessions , its marketing materials and other resources, the organization said.The Embers name is expected to be fully adopted by September.

The Brownies name is still used by similar organizations including Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and Girlguiding in Britain.

The Girl Scouts said in a statement that they support "all of our sister organizations around the world to make decisions that best reflect the welfare and intentions of the their communities and, most importantly, girls."

"Girl Scouts of U.S.A. is committed to becoming an anti-racism organization and providing an inclusive space for girls of color and to their families", the org...