scouts.org.uk/2018
A MILLION
HANDS
MAKE LIGHT
WORK
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
Like you, we believe in making a difference both
to individuals and to wider society. In Scouting,
we already take action in the service of others,
but we want to do more.
Since the Movement began, Scouts have promised to help other people. From running food banks to delivering meals on wheels, today Scouts take part in hundreds of projects that benefit their local areas. But while Scouts are active in their communities, there is too often little engagement with other people and organisations, as well as a lack of focus on impact or positive change that has been achieved.
We want to embrace and contribute to social change. With the launch of
our new Strategic Plan, Scouting For All (scouts.org.uk/2018), The Scout
Association has committed to making a positive impact in our communities, creating or continuing 8,000 social action projects per year, across the Country, by 2018.
But we can’t do it on our own. We may have nearly half a million 6 –25 year old girls, boys, young women and young men who have told us that they want to create genuine societal change. We may have members in every corner of the UK. We may have a sophisticated volunteer led programme that allows us to focus our entire movement on specific actions relatively easily. But what we don’t have is all the answers on how to translate such huge potential into real change.
We’ve asked our young people what issues they want to take action on, and how.
What they told us is outlined in the following pages. Now we’re looking for four
strategic partnerships with organisations already working to make change, for the next four years.
In brief:
We are looking to invest in four national partnerships over the next four years, where
our 500,000 young people take action on the issues your organisation cares about
Actions would be primarily practical, hands on projects, relevant to the communities
you’re trying to help, genuinely life changing for others whilst substantially developing our young people who take part
We would want to develop educational resources to underpin the action they take,
which are suitable for delivery through volunteers in a non-formal educational context.
Partnerships would not involve fundraising for your cause, but could involve
fundraising for the actions our young people take on your cause.
Ultimately, the question we want to ask you is ‘How would you use the skills, time and enthusiasm of 500,000 young people and adult volunteers across the UK to make a positive, measurable difference to the issues your organisation cares about?’
Our young people want to change the world. We hope you can work with us to make that happen.
Bear Grylls Wayne Bulpitt Matt Hyde
WHAT WE WANT TO DO...
We want to make a positive, measurable impact on our local,
national and international communities.
We define Community Impact as young people taking action in the service of others,
creating positive social change that is of benefit to the communities we are trying to help but also the young person taking part. That means that any projects/initiatives we develop should:
Be relevant to the needs of the community we’re trying to help
Genuinely change the lives of others
Genuinely develop the young person taking part
What we’ll achieve...
In our 2014–18 strategic plan, Scouting For All (scouts.org.uk/2018), we have set out two goals to achieve by 2018:
1. To create or continue 8,000 Community Impact projects year on year
2. For 70% of the public and decision makers to agree that Scouting is relevant to modern society
What we plan to do...
We have the infrastructure to mobilise nearly half a million young people, supported by adult volunteers. Our approach would be as follows:
1. A Collective Focus for the Movement
By partnering with four national organisations with expertise in making change on specific societal issues, we want to develop initiatives, resources and training to focus our 450,000 young people to achieve specific impacts. One of these issues will have an international focus.
2. Action that Matters to Young People Locally
Regardless of the four issues selected for our Movement to focus on, local factors will impact on what young people want to take action on. As such, we will develop tools and resources for Scouting to take action on whatever issues their young people locally are passionate about.
3. Creating Community Leaders
60% of our Scouts said that seeing other young people lead our Community Impact work would motivate them to take action. We will create a group of young people to lead our work nationally and train adult volunteers to support young
people locally.
What we have to give...
We have a lot to offer in making any national partnership a success...
A dedicated budget to commit to the partnerships
Two dedicated members of staff, supported by several Programme and
Development Advisors
A Community Impact Staged Activity Badge due for launch in January 2015
Capacity for two national training events reaching 200 young people and
adult volunteers
Scout Community Week: An annual week of community activities that already engages 150,000 young people with 2,500 projects, which from 2015 will focus on our national Community Impact issues
The Scout Association’s brand, digital assets and media team – all geared up to make
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80
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Support for Social Action: Please pick how much you agree with the following statements. (% “strongly agree”
and “agree“)
Scouting provides me with enough opportunities to improve the lives of people in my community Scouting should help me to take social action
Knowing I have made a difference to people/ the environment through Scouting is important to me Improving the lives of others is an important part of Scouting
WHAT OUR YOUNG
PEOPLE SAID...
We asked 3,000 of our 12–25 year olds what issues they wanted to
take action on, in what way and what would motivate them to do so.
The following research should help you in deciding whether
working with our 500,000 young people and adult volunteers
could help further your own aspirations.
Do they want to take action?
Resoundingly, yes. Over 95% thought that improving the lives of others was an important part of Scouting. We have nearly half a million young people willing to take action and they could be doing so on the issues that matter to your organisation.
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Scale: What scale of action is most important to you? (% agreement with first, second or third preference)
What Issues do they want to take action on?
What scale of Action?
We wanted to know what scale of action they were willing to take. The answer was that our young people are not afraid to tackle issues regardless of where they occur. However, unusual to other groups of young people, issues on an ‘international’ scale received more first preferences than ‘national’. Considering our global network of over 40 million Scouts with 162 established National Scout Organisations across the globe, this is not surprising.
International 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref National 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref Local 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref
Issues: Which of these issues do you strongly agree the Scouts should be taking action on, regardless of your
personal priorities? (% strongly agree)
What issues work for scouting?
We then asked what specific societal issues they would want to make a positive impact on, both personally and as part of Scouting.
There were some issues that young people ‘strongly agreed’ to as being issues Scouting should take action on:
1. Bullying
2. Young people’s rights and wellbeing
3. Community cohesion (bringing people in the community together)
However, no single issue received less than 74% of young people agreeing or strongly agreeing, meaning there are few limits to the issues in which young people would be willing to engage with as part of Scouting.
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Rights of the elderly Homelessness Community facilities International aid Education Poverty Employment Sexism Homo/Transphobia Environment Mental Health Ableism Racism Community Cohesion Bullying
What issues work for young people personally?
When asked what issues mattered to them personally (rather than what was most appropriate for Scouting to take action on) the following issues came top in terms of “very important”:
1. Bullying – 65% 2. Education – 63% 3. Mental health – 57%
Those who selected “other” and gave open comments focussed heavily on equalities, international issues, mental health, education and skills.
Issues: How important to you personally are each of the following issues? (% very important)
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Young people’ s rights/wellbeingHomelessness Community facilities Poverty Inter Rights of the elderly Community Cohesion
national aid Sexism Homo/T ransphobia Envir onment Ableism Employment Racism Mental health Bullying Education
If young people ran the country...
Finally, to try and find out what issues were most important to young people in a different way, we asked what single part of Government they would invest in if they were in charge of the Country.
Budget Question: If you were the Prime Minister and could spend money on only ONE thing, what would it be?
(% chosen)
15%
2%
2%
Education21%
29%
Our countries environment and farming/ fishing/wildlife International development (helping poorer countries) Skills, employment and business7%
14%
Health care5%
5%
Community and youth services TransportCulture, media and sport Climate change and energy production
How do they want to take action?
Social action can mean different things to different people and organisations. We wanted to know what type of action our young people wanted to take in a Scouting context.
Practical, hands on projects was the clear preference, followed by partnering with non-Scouts, fundraising and influencing decision makers. Although fundraising came high, we are not interested in simply fundraising for a particular cause. That is not to say that fundraising to allow our young people to deliver practical, hands on projects would be inappropriate. Also, influencing decision makers on the issues may be a secondary activity within this work, but it won’t be our primary focus or go-to method of action.
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Action: How do you think the Scouts should be helping to tackle issues? Please pick the top three that that you would
be most excited to take part in through Scouting. (% agreement with first, second or third preference)
Sponsorship Demonstrating Social media and online actions Practical projects Fund- raising Influencing decision makers Giving information /advice Action with external organisations 3rd pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 2nd pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref 1st pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref 1st pref 3rd pref 2nd pref 1st pref
WHAT DOES YOUR
MP THINK?
We want this work to shift the perceptions of Scouting held by decision makers and the general public. Hence we asked how MPs would rank issues we could take action on both in terms of where the greatest impact could be made but also which would increase their perception of Scouting as being “relevant to modern society” the most. There was a strong feeling amongst MPs that The Scout Association should first and foremost focus on the rights and wellbeing of young people. There was less consensus on other issues. While community cohesion scored fairly well in terms of placement in the top three issues to take action on, its average rank across politicians of all parties was little different from that of bullying, education, community facilities or employment. Encouragingly, 81% of MPs would be likely to attend or support a social action project run by our young people, and 79% associate The Scout Association with empowering young people to take action that has a positive impact in their communities.
Please contact [email protected] if you want any further details from the research we conducted
A BIT ABOUT THE
SCOUT ASSOCIATION...
The Movement
We’re proudly volunteer led, but that certainly doesn’t mean we compromise on scale, reach or quality...
Chief Scout: Bear Grylls
Ambassadors and Volunteers: Duchess of Cambridge, Lord Sebastian Coe, Justin King
plus others
450,000 young people (6-25 years)
104,000 adult volunteers (18+)
Waiting list of 41,000 young people
124,000 Beaver Scouts (6–8 years)
153,000 Cub Scouts (8–10 years)
126,000 Scouts (10–14 years)
44,000 Explorer Scouts (14–18 years)
2,400 Network (18–25 years)
19% girls and young women (6–25 young people)
37,000,000 hours given in volunteer time equating to £380 million of youth work
7,500 groups (individual meeting places) across the UK
The Organisation
We are well resourced to support our volunteers deliver everyday adventure...
Established in 1907
330 staff across the UK with offices in London, Fife, South Glamorgan and Belfast
We have delivery structures on a group (individual site), district, county, region and
country level
£26m turnover
Corporate Partners: Canon, Volvo, 20th Century Fox, B&Q, Care, E.On, Morrisons,
Halford, UK Space Agency, Disney, National Trust, The Wildlife Trust and many more
Own and operate twelve outdoor activity centres across the UK
Our Brand
We have huge recognition with the general public and decision makers alike...
44% of the general public would like their children to join the Scouts
74% of the public believe we provide a safe place for young people to have fun
and adventure
Scouting was the most frequently named out of school activity for young people
Scouting is seen as the most practical charity, 14% above average
Our biggest potential support is from 18–25 year olds, girls, woman and C2DE social
grades (skilled, unskilled manual workers and unemployed).
79% of the general public believe it’s very important for young people to have
structured out of school activities
87% of MPs associate The Scout Association with engagnging and supporting young
people in their personal developement. With 61% associating us with being worthy of public funding to support our objectivies
81% of MPs would publically suport our objectivies in print, broadcast or socail media.
CAN YOU HELP US?
In August of this year we’ll ask a group of our young people to
decide the four national organisations we partner with through
to 2018 to deal with specific social issues.
Ultimately, the question we want to ask you is ‘How would you use the skills, time and enthusiasm of 500,000 young people and adult volunteers across the UK to make a positive, measurable difference to the issues your organisation cares about?’
If you have some ideas, below are the type of questions we would love to explore with you. It is worth taking a look through the research and information outlined in this document to see where the aspirations of our young people match with the issues and actions you propose.
The Impact and Action
What impact could our young people be a part of?
What type(s) of action could young people take to achieve that impact?
How could we measure that impact?
Would we support different activities for our different age groups?
Would the action help young people to appreciate difference by working in groups,
not just with other Scouts, but others in a community?
What are the educational outcomes of the activity?
Joint Resources
What staff time could you commit and at what level?
What financial resources, if any, could you commit?
Do you have local reach and, if so, in what way?
Are you comfortable in working with us to produce educational materials that are
suitable for delivery through a volunteer led, non-formal programme?
What other assets, such as ambassadors/partnerships/expertise/planned events
could you offer?
Interested?
June – JulyWe would work with you to develop a proposition on how we might work together.
August
Our young people meet to decide which four organisations they would like to work with.
September – December
We will work with the successful organisations to develop strategy, resources and training in delivering social action initiatives in your area of expertise.
January 2015
We launch our partnerships to the Movement and outside world, working with you to achieve media coverage and buy in from Scouting locally.
If you think there is potential to partner with us then please contact our Head of
Public Affairs and Campaigns at [email protected] by the 13 July to
explore further. Regardless, thank you for taking the time to consider how we could work together, and goodluck with your own organisations goals and aspirations.
© 2014 The Scout Association
Registered charity numbers:306101 (England and Wales) and SC038437 (Scotland).
