scoutreach

[Lisabob]

I'd like to know whether you have scoutreach units in your district or council, and if so, how the program seems to work in your area. I'll start by saying I think I know what the basic purpose of scoutreach is supposed to be (bring scouting to more low-income youth, often in urban areas where there isn't enough parental/community support to maintain a traditional volunteer-based scouting program) and our council (though not my district) does have some scoutreach units. But I know very little about how well they work out on the ground, or how closely they approximate a "typical" scouting unit in reality.

 

What can you share about how the program actually works, based on your more in-depth knowledge of scoutreach units? Has anybody here been a leader for a scoutreach unit?

 

[Bob White]

Scoutreach works fairly well in our council, it has given many boys in parts of the council an opportunity to be exposed to the values and fun of scouting that might not normally have that chance, due to the economics or the resources of their neighborhood.

 

While some Scoutreach units can and do look and function as a "typical" unit most have more unique structures. It all depends on what is available in the way of resources and leadership for that particular unit. But the goal is to use as many Methods as possible in order to achieve the Aims and Mission of Scouting just as with any other unit.

[Eamonn]

Our Council employs a person part time to look after these units.

He is a nice fellow, but at best he holds meetings once a month.

We don't have any Scoutreach Troops only Packs.

The meetings tend to be attended by any kid who has time to attend (Boys, girls of just about any age). They meet do some sort of a craft have a drink of juice and that's it till next month.

Eamonn.

[Lisabob]

Eamonn,

 

What happens once those kids age out of cub scouting? Is it that there isn't much interest in continuing on with a boy scout-like program, or is it that the fellow doing the part time work does not (or cannot) run a real outdoor program on his own, or maybe some other reason? Not criticizing, just trying to understand what the dynamic is.

[Eamonn]

Nearly all of these units were at one time "HUD Units", in low income housing.

Of course after "The Memo" there was a rush to find new CO's.

The person who served as the FOS Community Chair. Is deeply involved in the local Lions Club. The Lions became a CO. The Lions have no idea who the unit is! Where it meets! In fact know next to nothing about the unit.

 

I'm not exactly sure how it works (Maybe Bob White does?) But somehow, someway the charter doesn't have the names of the youth on it. The argument for this is that the families are transient.

Back when I was District Chairman, I was very unhappy with having these units listed as part of the District.

I argued that the District played no part in these units. We never played any part in starting them, the leader is an employee of the Council, we never provided any type of service to these units and they never got involved in any District activities.

The guy we have now does try to do his job.

In the past the Council tried to staff this with people involved in the Americore program, one of these paid volunteers went MIA and it seems no one noticed for six months.

We also had at one time a Scoutreach Venturing unit /Crew also staffed by a Americore volunteer. This was in a juvenile detention center. I went to visit and the Director was a very unhappy camper. I was the first person to go there from the Council in over 18 months.

There as far as I can see seems to be no plans to do anything more than what is being done.

While one meeting a month (But not in the summer as the guy who does this works at Summer Camp during the Summer) might be better than nothing? There is no real Scouting program, which is in some ways understandable being that at any given meeting there might be more five year old girls than boys of Cub Scout age there.

 

What is sad is that in the areas there are a good number of churches that are attended by mainly a African-American congregations. I think given the opportunity and maybe offering the adults some help to pay for training, uniforms, books and program material with some help from traditional units and using the OA program, we could really make more of an impact and in time move these type of units to become established traditional units.

Of course on paper membership would take a big hit. Numbers would drop.

In another area of the Council a friend of mine tried to start traditional type units in a mainly African-American area. He ran into problems finding black men who didn't have a criminal record, mainly convictions for drug use when they were young. He was told to drop it and leave it alone.

Some of our DE's refuse to go into these areas! They feel that they are unsafe.

While I don't have the answer! I do feel that we as an organization need to look at hiring a more diverse workforce.

I do know that the Council that Ed serves did at one time have a African-American District Director who was charged with community relations.

I served on on our Area Committee which serves 13 Councils, while our Regional guy is black few if any of the 13 Councils have a DE of color.

While of course people who serve at the unit level should put the unit they serve and the Scouts they serve first, there is a need for Councils and professional staff to make real plans to get into areas that don't have a scouting presence and see what can be done, this might mean inviting established units to offer a helping hand. Maybe with some sort of mentoring program for these units, maybe by offering to camp with these units offering them the use of equipment.

I was overjoyed when Wood Badge took on diversity. I'm sure this has been a real eye opener for some.

Eamonn.

 

[Lisabob]

Eamonn, thanks for your response. I have heard, second and third hand, similar concerns about the way scoutreach works in my own area. As mentioned, "my" district does not have any scoutreach units, being primarily suburban and rural in nature. Other districts in our council do have some scoutreach units and occasionally I hear things that make me wonder how effective the program is and the potential for membership abuses does seem apparent (not saying that is happening in our council - I really have no data to assess that - simply, I can see how it would be easy to allow such abuses to occur.) But, I have often wondered, with the number of rather highly organized and well-populated churches serving many of the same populations we're talking about reaching through scoutreach, why we couldn't get more traditional units going as well.

 

One thing a couple of troops I know have been kicking around is a partnership between urban and rural/suburban troops - holding a couple of joint camp outs each year, maybe attending summer camp together, etc. It could be a great learning experience for the boys - and parents - on both ends. Would parents support it though? Sadly I'm not sure.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

In some areas of our District, Scoutreach has had a rocky relationship with the traditional units. The first issue is the Council has a Scoutreach District that didnt communicate well with the other Districts, while that is better now, it certainly could be improved.

 

Then Scoutreach units have Pack and Troop meetings after school with paid scoutmasters and cubmasters. This lead to the demise of several traditional Packs and Troops. The Scoutreach units offered the scouting program after school and transportation was provided. Now, how does a traditional unit compete with that? The parents dont have to worry about getting kids to a pack meeting or a troop meeting, the kids are already at school and then they get transported home. The adult leaders tend to be teachers in the school who the kids already know and the adults know the kids.

 

Then, the Scoutreach leaders are paid for their time. This caused quite a stir one year. A scouter from a traditional unit wanted to send a positive notice to the scoutreach units and have the District pay for the leaders of the Scoutreach units to attend the annual Council Dinner. One scouter strenously objected as he put it the Scoutreach adult leaders were already getting paid to do scouting and would be paid to attend the council dinner and couldnt they afford to pay the fee themselves. Until then, I didnt know scoutreach leaders were paid.

 

The Scoutreach units have top of the line equipment available to them donated by businesses in the area that traditional troops do not and a huge portion of the Councils budget is spent on the Scoutreach units. Now, I agree with the mission of Scoutreach, to provide a Scouting opportunity to youth who wouldnt otherwise have that chance, yet it comes with effects on the traditional program that cannot be ignored, much as the Council tries.