This has been a week of exciting announcements for Girl Scouts. On April 3, they unveiled a partnership with The North Face, coinciding with the launch of the brand’s first-ever global initiative focused on women called Move Mountains. This multiyear collaboration will focus on working together to prepare the next generation of female explorers to empower themselves.

Continuing the theme of empowered leaders, today GSUSA announced a partnership with LinkedIn to connect all Girl Scout alums. LinkedIn will offer a community of support for female professionals and help enhance their career development. It will also allow alums the opportunity to share their experience with the next generation and join forces with like-minded women to effect change.

All Girl Scout alums, regardless of how long they were in the program are invited to connect with one another on The Girl Scout Network. Of course, we definitely think you should join!

This collaboration marks the first time that GSUSA will have the ability to track the life experiences and success of Girl Scout alums using LinkedIn’s community of more than 546 million members. GSUSA will do this by utilizing information from the public profiles of alums, such as: education, career fields, and leadership positions to identify trends, deficits, and opportunities for women in the workplace. This information will help Girl Scouts create relevant and impactful programs and experiences for girls in our council and beyond.

At a time when stories about unequal and unethical treatment of women continue to populate headlines across the United States, The Girl Scout Network will energize female professionals to take the reins and be trailblazers in our country and the world. It will offer inspiring personal stories from girls and alums as well as ways to support and help prepare girls to lead.

Girl Scouts’ legacy is one of girls and women supporting one another and effecting change through civic engagement be it in Western New York or elsewhere. The Girl Scout Network allows us to work with GSUSA to better prepare and mobilize more girls to make the world a better place.