Scouting

What is Scouting?

Scouting is the UK’s biggest mixed youth organisation. We change lives by offering 6 to 25-year olds fun and challenging activities, unique experiences, everyday adventure and the chance to help others so that we make a positive impact in communities.

Scouting helps children and young adults reach their full potential. Scouts develop skills including teamwork, time management, leadership, initiative, planning, communication, self-motivation, cultural awareness and commitment. We help young people to get jobs, save lives and even change the world!

What do Scouts do?

Scouts take part in activities as diverse as kayaking, abseiling, expeditions overseas, photography, climbing and zorbing. As a Scout you can learn survival skills, First Aid, computer programming, or even how to fly a plane; there’s something for every young person. It’s a great way to have fun, make friends, get outdoors, express your creativity and experience the wider world.

What do volunteers do?

This everyday adventure is possible thanks to our adult volunteers, who support Scouts in a wide range of roles from working directly with young people, to helping manage a Group, to being a charity Trustee. Volunteers are supported to get the most out of their experiences at Scouts with opportunities for adventure, training, fun and friendship.

Our award-winning training scheme for volunteers means that adults get as much from Scouts as young people. Our approach focuses on what you want to get out of volunteering with Scouts, while respecting how much time you can offer. Over 90% of Scout volunteers say that their skills and experiences have been useful in their work or personal life.

Scouting in the UK

Our Mission statement describes the Purpose of Scouting in the UK, the values of Scouting and the Scout Method which can all be found in the detail below.

The Purpose of Scouting – Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.

The Values of Scouting – As Scouts we are guided by these values:

Integrity – We act with integrity; we are honest, trustworthy and loyal.
Respect – We have self-respect and respect for others.
Care – We support others and take care of the world in which we live.
Belief – We explore our faiths, beliefs and attitudes.
Co-operation – We make a positive difference; we co-operate with others and make friends.

The Scout Method – Scouting takes place when young people, in partnership with adults, work together based on the values of Scouting and:

enjoy what they are doing and have fun
take part in activities indoors and outdoors
learn by doing
share in spiritual reflection
take responsibility and make choices
undertake new and challenging activities
make and live by their Promise.

For more information about what Scouts do and how they do it;

Visit – http://scouts.org.uk/what-we-do/

A Brief History of Scouting

Without everyday adventures, the world would certainly be a less interesting place, and if it wasn’t for the talent and originality of one man, the Scout Movement might never have existed at all.

This man was Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), a soldier, artist, actor and free-thinker. He was best known for his spirited defence of the small South African township of Mafeking during the Boer War, he was propelled to further fame as the Founder of Scouting.

Inspired during the siege by the initiative shown by boys under pressure, Baden-Powell (BP) realised that young people had huge potential that was often left untapped.

Already thinking of developing a training programme for young people in Britain, Baden-Powell held a camp on Brownsea Island in Poole, Dorset in 1907 to try out his ideas and brought together 20 boys from a variety of backgrounds.

He was encouraged by friends to rewrite his handbook for soldiers (Aids to Scouting) for this younger audience and along with the success of the camp it spurred him on to finish what would become a classic book of the 20th century.

Scouting for Boys was published in 1908 in six fortnightly parts at 4d (that’s 4 old pennies) a copy. What had been intended as a training aid for existing organisations became the handbook of a new Movement, which secured the royal seal of approval the following year when King Edward VII agreed to the introduction of the King’s Scout Award.

It is reported the between 100 million to 150 million copies of Scouting for Boys have been printed which puts it very high in the list of all-time best selling books.

In its first census in 1910, Scouting had almost 108,000 participants; over 100,000 were young people.

The big step across the Atlantic and into the United States came more by chance. In 1909, an American business man, William Boyce, was lost in the fog of London, when a small boy approached him and offered to take him to his hotel. Once there, the boy refused any offer of money for the service, saying that it was his good turn as a Boy Scout.

Boyce was intrigued by this and tracked down Baden-Powell before he left London to discover more of this. When he got back to the U.S.A. he went about setting up the Boy Scouts of America. By 1918, its numbers had risen to 300,000, and had reached the million mark before the end of the twenties.

It was a global phenomenon. As numbers grew, it soon became clear that young people of all ages and in every country wanted to get involved in Scouting. Wolf Cubs came along for younger Scouts in 1916, followed four years later by Rover Scouts for an older age range.

1920 was also the year of the first World Scout Jamboree. At London’s Olympia, Scouts from across the world gathered to celebrate international unity and the growth of their great Movement.

Lord Baden-Powell died in 1941 but his legacy continued. Scouting became a byword for adventure, usefulness and global friendship.

As the Movement spread across the world, Scouting continued to evolve in the United Kingdom. Following heroic work during the Second World War when Scouts acted as coast guards, couriers and stretcher bearers, members continued to show they were truly able to live their motto ‘Be Prepared.’

Baden-Powell once said “It is a movement, because it moves forward. As soon as it stops moving, it becomes an organisation and is no longer Scouting”.

Scouting has never stood still. New branches such as Air and Sea Scouts became increasingly popular, gaining recognition from the RAF and the Royal Navy. Scouts were on hand to help out at major events such as the Queen’s Coronation, helping the crowds who camped out overnight to get a glimpse of the spectacle.

The Movement continued to grow and move with the times. Rover Scouts and Senior Scouts became Venture Scouts and the badge system was updated to reflect the wider range of activities a Scout could do. Girls were invited to join the Venture Scout section; this was introduced to other sections in the early 1990s.

In the true spirit of an inclusive organisation, younger children got to experience Scouting for the first time with the official incorporation of the Beaver Scouts in 1986.

Three years later, official headgear was abolished for all sections.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, the Association again underwent reform with the launch of a new logo, uniform and training programme and the introduction of Explorer Scouts and the Scout Network by 2002.

In 2007, the Movement celebrated its centenary and the 21st World Scout Jamboree was held in the UK.

Scouting hit the headlines in 2009 when TV adventurer Bear Grylls was announced as the new Chief Scout.

Baden-Powell

‘Life without adventure would be deadly dull’ – Lord Baden-Powell.

If Scouting is about fulfilling your potential, then Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (or BP) certainly fulfilled his.

BP preferred the outdoors to the classroom and spent much of his time sketching wildlife in the woods around his school. After school, he went into the army, where he led a distinguished career through posts in countries including India, Afghanistan, Malta and various parts of Africa. The most famous event in BP’s military career was the defence of Mafeking against the Boers in 1899, after which he became a Major-General at the age of only 43.

He is best known as the founder in 1908 of the Boy Scouts and in 1910, with his sister Agnes, of the Girl Guides. BP retired from the army in 1910 at the age of 53, on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested he could provide more valuable service to his country by developing Scouting and its sister movement, Guiding.

BP was acclaimed World Chief Scout in 1920, the only Chief Scout to hold this recognition.

BP wrote no less than 32 books, the earnings from which helped to pay for his Scouting travels. As with all his successors, he received no salary as Chief Scout. He received various honorary degrees and the freedom of a number of cities, along with 28 foreign orders and decorations and 19 foreign Scout awards.

In 1938, suffering ill-health, BP returned to Africa to live in semi-retirement in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died on 8 January 1941 at the age of 83. He is buried in a simple grave at Nyeri within sight of Mount Kenya. On his headstone are the words, ‘Robert Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World’ alongside Scout and Guide emblems. He was later commemorated in Westminster Abbey, London.

BP is remembered on Founder’s Day, which is celebrated on his birthday (22 February) each year.

To this day Scouts continue to enjoy activities in the outdoors and live out BP’s ideas.