Youth Summit2

06/07/2010

Caithness♦Lochaber♦Ross and Sutherland♦Western Isles♦Aberdeen♦Gordon♦Kincardinshire♦Moray♦Glenrothes and Levenmouth♦Kirkcaldy♦North Angus♦Rosyth♦South Angus♦Blackford♦East Lothian♦Leith♦Morningside♦Pentland♦Clackmannanshire♦Falkirk♦Stirling and Trossachs♦West Lothian♦Calder♦Kelvin Valley♦South East♦South Western♦Dunbartonshire♦Greenock and District♦Paisley and District♦Renfrewshire♦AyrshireEast♦Dumfriesshire♦Galloway♦Kyle and Carrick

Over 100 young people from 34 Districts across the length and breadth of Scotland descended on the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan on 26th - 27th June for the second Scottish Scouts Youth Summit.

Their mission was to ensure that Scouting in Scotland was relevant for the young people of the millennium and challenge some of the priorities that the Scottish Board has set for the coming three years as well as considering the UK vision towards 2018.

Young people were selected to attend the event following extensive recruitment through District Commissioners, DESCs, and DSNLs and then more recently by direct requests to the young people themselves. The participants came from three distinct Groups as follows:

• Explorer Scouts
• 18-25 Scout Network Members
• 18-25 Adult Leaders

Following some initial integration everyone was split into seven Groups with young people from all different types of communities across the country. They were challenged to find out more about the different types of Scouting that exist across Scotland.

The main part of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon when Groups attended three out of seven workshops to identify:

1. the issues that face Scouting now
2. where Scouting should be in 2013
3. how are we going to get there

There was wide ranging discussions and ideas around the eight strands of the Scottish Three Year Work Programme including:

• Recruitment & Retention
• 6-25 Programme
• Internal Communication
• Selling Scouting Externally
• How adults support local Scouting
• Ensuring a sustainable movement
• Youth Participation
• Reflecting Diversity in Scouting

Each Group was then challenged to identify 5 statements of intent that followed the theme of "In 2013 Scouting in Scotland will...".

The facilitators used various methods to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to have their say and some lively discussions took place that challenge the way that we do things in Scouting today.

The Saturday evening was a time to relax and have some fun and a number of exciting activities were laid on including Hover about, Bucking Bronco, Surf Simulator and Art Attack as well as a time to chat to new friends.

Sunday was time to share the various findings of the Saturday workshops with the entire audience and after a short team building exercise each Group championed the session that they attended on the Saturday.

The young people shared their aspirations for Scouting in Scotland in 2013 and everyone used interactive voting pads to select the three priorities under each of the headings.

The voting brought out 35 statements of intent which were then put together into a video manifesto from the young people of Scotland. This was shared with seven invited guests including, The Chief Commissioner, Depute Chief Commissioners, Chairman of the Scottish Board, The Chief Executive and the Scottish Headquarters Commissioners (Explorer Scouts and Scout Network).

The weekend was a great success, the statements were extremely positive and in some cases controversial but they all proved how articulate our young people are and how passionately they believe in their movement.

So what now?

The video manifesto will form part of a report that will be given to the Scottish Board in August and then it will be part of the District Commissioners event 'On Track' in September, however it is clear that we must embrace our engagement with young people, they have a voice and it must be heard.

We were all very impressed with these young people and promised them that we would keep in touch so that they know about events and activities that affect them in the future. This is not just a national responsibility but a local one also and it is up to every one of us to ensure that we are reminded that this is a Youth Movement.