Girl Guides of Canada

Terrible experience with Embers unit in Winnipeg. After getting my daughter all excited for it and paying upfront for uniform and for the place every week for my daughter, they informed us parents had to volunteer because there weren’t any leaders otherwise the unit would shut. I wish I had taken my daughter out there and then. I ended up saying I would help out but I work in the evenings (so I ended up losing money from my job) as long as other people stepped up too. Only one other person did. At this point I didn’t want my daughter to miss out so I just kept going every week and helping. We ended up only doing 4 months - some of the activities were ok. That’s where the one star comes from. But other sessions the girls were out in the neighbourhood in the evenings selling cookies (we were already all doing this at home) I don’t agree with sending children out at 7pm at night knocking on people’s doors. They were supervised by rangers who are only teenagers so I question the safety. As I mentioned, there wasn’t much leader support which is why some of us had to volunteer. Or it seems the put the burden on the rangers.It is all profit based and it’s more about them making money than taking care of the embers and volunteer leaders. I was so unhappy with my experience that I requested a refund and my daughter missed 5 months of it as she didn’t want to go back. I have seen leaders snap at the children and it made my daughter and I uncomfortable. They denied my refund at head office and were extremely rude. So not only did I donate my time and missed out on my own income, they value the $110 I was requesting back even though I gave them so much for free. I even helped at the trip to the museum and had WAY too much responsibility put on me on my own with kids.Please just avoid. It’s not worth the stress and the hassle and the toll it has had on my mental health has been unimaginable. The worst part is I didn’t even complete my background check before they had me working with the kids as they said it ‘didn’t matter’. It’s still not completed now long after I have left.