We provide fun, challenge and adventure to

over 400,000 girls and boys across the UK

Youth involvement

To meet our Vision Toward 2018, young people across all ages will have the chance to have their voice heard on all aspects of

Scouting, including programme and activity planning and the way that their Group is run.

This is to ensure that Scouting meets their needs and remains relevant to their interests.

Youth involvement includes young people doing the following:

sharing their ideas

learning from and teaching each other and adults

taking part in decision making

assisting with planning the programme, including activities and camps

becoming more involved in all aspects of Scouting

Why is youth involvement important?

In order for the Vision to be achieved, young people need to become more actively involved in every aspect of Scouting, which will allow the

Movement to continue to grow and meet the needs of young people.

It will also help leaders to keep their section growing and interested. We dont know what the needs and interests of young people are

until we ask them, and improving youth involvement will give leaders more opportunities to find out what young people actually want.

The climbing wall of youth involvement

The climbing wall has been created to assist the development of youth involvement in Scouting, and identifies seven steps for youth

involvement.

It is important to understand that improving youth involvement is not simply a case of moving up the wall and staying there; it is a fluid

model, and your position on the wall will change over time and as the young people in your section change.

For example, when the young people in your section are new they will require more guidance, and the activity, for example planning a

camp, will be at a lower level on the wall.

As your young people begin to use their initiative more for subsequent events then your section will move up the wall, but when these

young people move on and new members join, the process may start again.

Your section can also be at different levels for different activities. These are some examples of how activities within a Cub Pack can be at

different levels, and these examples can be applied to all sections:

If leaders ask the Cubs what they would like to do next term and the decision on what ends up in the programme is shared

between adults and young people, then this would be level 6 on the climbing wall.

If the Cubs give their views on what they would like to be included, and these views inform adult-made decisions about the

content of the programme, for example those made at leaders meetings, then this is level 5.

If adults plan a camp, and Sixers are assigned the role of showing other Cubs how to put out their sleeping bags, then this is

level 4, as the Cubs have been told what to do rather than coming up with the idea themselves.

Anything above and including level 4 is classed as youth involvement, and for some activities, level 5 or 6 may be the most

appropriate, so you do not always have to achieve level 7 in everything your unit does for effective youth involvement to be in

place.

Youth involvement is about giving young people the opportunity to get involved; the level at which they do this needs to be right for you,

your Leadership team and the young people themselves.

Download the Climbing wall of youth involvement (jpg) (/documents/Climbing% 20Wall.jpg)

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