Scoutmaster

[Bruce in CT]

I am working on my diversity ticket. I have committed to survey as many councils as possible to gather the following information:

What support is provided by the council for scouts and scouters with disabilities?

What is the form of the support? Specific commissioners and / or other volunteers? Specific training for scouters leading troops with disabled scouts? Facilities that have been made available to support scouts and scouters with disabilities (e.g. special trails)?

Are there specific programs to support teaching other scouts and scouters about living with disabilities?

An estimate of the number of scouts and scouters served by these programs.

Any information would be very much appreciated.

Bruce in CT a good ol' Fox

[EagleInKY]

Bruce - I know that the Lincoln Heritage Council has a District Executive assigned to "Scouting Unlimited". She has responsibility for special units and related services. You can contact them. Here's the website which has contact info.

 

http://www.lhcbsa.org

[Trevorum]

An interesting research topic.

 

I'm not sure most folks on the forums here will know much about their council policies in these matters. Some will of course, but most of us are probably unit scouters. I can tell you that our unit has two fellows with Downs and another with Aspergers; in serving these scouts I have discovered that our local distict advancement chair is very knowledgeable about scouts with disabilities and about alternative advancement procedures.

 

If you want to get a bigger picture of council policies nationwide, I'd suggest selecting a sample of councils and just calling them up to find the name of the contact person, then writing or emailing that person. You'll probably get much better data than you will from us ...

[infoscouter]

The Northern Star Council has a council Diversity committee, which provides guidance to our special needs and outreach populations.

http://www.northernstarbsa.org/Resources/Diversity.asp

 

There are two professionals who support our Special Needs units and Scouts. Sara Amberg is the Special Needs Director:

samberg@northernstarbsa.org

 

There are day camps and camporees provided for Special Needs Scouts, and support is provided for integrating special needs youth into mainstream units.

 

Recently the council has been working with a group called Wilderness Inquiry, who have been providing training on including youth with all abilities in Scouting activities.

http://www.wildernessinquiry.org/

[GNX Guy]

Cool,

 

I'd be happy to help. I'm the Council Special Needs Committee Chair in our Council as well as a Cub Master for one of our Special Needs Packs. We also have a District level Special needs Committee Chair within each district. You will be surprised at how many special needs Scouts there are out there. In fact, we have over 800, yes, over 800 Scouts of non-traditional age in just one of our Packs. In fact, we have a Halloween party today for them. 580 Scouts are planned to show up. We also have several packs/troops that are only Special needs Scouts.

 

We have formal training for leaders, a mission and vision statement, etc.

 

If interested in speaking on the phone, send me a pm or or let me know what your email address is.

 

I'm working my ticket as well. It just so happens all 5 of my ticket items are diversity items relating to Scouts with Special Needs.

 

This is a great thread, as I'm always looking for ideas.

 

Joe(This message has been edited by GNX Guy)(This message has been edited by GNX Guy)

[John-in-KC]

Hit me in PM with contact info and I will put you in touch with my District Special needs folks.

[Bruce in CT]

I appreciate your suggestions for data gathering and specific examples of what you and your councils are doing.  I will follow up directly to try and contact the DE for special needs.

My own council commissioner had suggested working through the Woodbadge connection because everyone would understand the nature of the ticket and, if not directly familiar with all of their council's resources, would generally be able to point me in the right direction.

I look forward to more help from all of you.

Bruce in CT