Guidance for Leaders
Empower your young people to shape the future of Scouting...in 10 minutes
Scouting has a lot to be proud of and young people have been at the heart of our success. But the world moves
on and Scouting has to keep up, and we need to know what Scouting should look like in five years time.
We know that we want to grow so that more people can take part in the everyday adventure Scouting provides.
We want to make a difference on the issues we care about and help out people in our communities. We want
everyone to enjoy Scouting; whether boy or girl, rich or poor... whatever background you’re from. And we
rightly want this movement to be shaped by young people.
Our vision for how Scouting should be in 2018 is in place and it is time to turn that into action. We want Scouting
to make a difference to those issues our young people care about, and help young people see that together they
can make an impact and a change.
How can you help your young people contribute?
1) There is quick online survey for anyone aged 12-25 to take. Distribute the below link to your young
people to complete by 27 November via email, social media channels or your local website. Link to
survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2JYB7Z8
2) There is a website where young people in Scouting across the UK are sharing their views. Take 10
minutes at the end of a meeting and ask your Scouts, Explorers or Network members to upload their
responses to as many of the below questions as possible between now and 5 December 2013
http://be.scouts.org.uk
Example questions for young people to answer:
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What can you do to help advertise Scouting in your community?
Sell Scouting in 30 seconds
How can we make sure Scouting is inclusive of everyone in the community?
How can you make Scouting better?
What’s the biggest problem in your community and how can you solve it?
How to answer the questions (ideas for Leaders)
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Have a ‘diary room chair’ set up somewhere at meetings, let each young person pick a question and
record their ideas during any down time.
Pair your young people up and ask them to choose a question each to answer. One of the pair then films
the other one giving their answer to the question, but in the style of a famous person they admire (then
swap over).
Choose one of the questions above and ask your young people to prepare a 1 minute speech on their
idea as the answer to this question. Ask them to pitch it to the rest of the group and record this (audio or
visual).
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Set up some graffiti walls using flip chart paper – each sheet of paper has one of the questions written
on. Ask your young people to write up their ideas directly onto the walls. Then take pictures of the final
walls ready to upload.
Provide your young people with a selection of old magazines and newspapers and ask them to cut out
words and make collages of their thoughts in answer to one of the questions - photograph the final
collages and upload them.
Ensure their voices are heard
Once their views are captured – either in written form, picture, video or audio, encourage your young people to
upload the content themselves either at home or at the meeting to be.scouts.org.uk, or you can do this also on
their behalf.
What will happen next?
Answers to the survey and content on the website will be reviewed and fed into a report for 40 young people to
analyse in January 2014. That group of young people will work with the Chief Executive and UK Chief
Commissioner of The Scout Association to help review the ideas and agree the most effective and important
ones they would like to see in The Scout Association’s plans over the next 4 years.