Scouting - Adult Support

What does it mean?

Have you ever;

• Wondered what goes on at a Colony Night - quite how so much paint ended up on her hands and hardly any on the model of Starship Galactica
• Pondered what Cubs really get up to on Pack Holiday and quite how a towel and flannel 'self clean themselves' having been used every day (honest) and how the mud caked trousers were Captain Thunderbubble's fault?
• Tried to figure out what the Scouts were doing with three rolled up newspapers a boiled egg, first aid kit and map?
• Decyphered the "s'olritedudgoodstuff " grunt from the Explorer who has just spent the weekend camping in a bivvy bag and now commands the whole sofa and TV remote.

A bit of help on the way

They may well be tomorrow's politicians, enngineers, poets and explorers, but they need a bit of help on the way.
To run that Beaver meeting, where they learned about stars and planets and had great fun making their model space craft, a team of adults; normal sane people (Need to check that- Ed.) were on hand to help glue and paint, to make drinks, to go to the library to get the books on 'The solar system' and to organise and run the games. The paint on her hands just shows she had fun learning and playing.
The planning and execution of the Pack holiday started weeks before the Cubs saw their beds, menus and activities were planned and sourced, reccys to the site to plan the Pirate treasure trail and plan any risk mitigation were made. Oh yes an there were those who actually stayed with them to make sure the whole "ship" stayed afloat all weekend.
The Scouts were on an incident hike, pre planned and run with adult support, and were just told to "Be Prepared" Although it is good practice to have the first aid kit it was also necessary when they had to deal with a Leader's "Fractured arm" at base 1. The newspapers were used to start a fire to cook their lunch (ham and cheese tosties wrapped in foil in the embers. The egg, well they will learn for next time, not everything Skip offers is useful so it pays to think.
As for the Explorers, their Leaders were a 'safe' distance away, having trained them in the skills they would need to survive the night the Leaders had a nice cosy tent but the Explorer's didn't need sleep much anyway, they chatted, played cards and wondered why they had brought mobiles to a place with no signal.

So what of the Adult Support?

The roles of some of the adults can be seen in the paragraphs above, they are not the main focus, but they are there making these event happen and giving the Youth members the best opportunities they can.
There are also many background roles enabling this to happen; Group, District and County Committee members keeping the Group hall in shape, raising money for the tents, helping with transport and so on. The County and District Scouters organising inter District events. There are the Scout trainers helping new Adult supporters understand and perform their vital roles.

There is a network of volunteers just like you making Scouting happen!

Why would I want to "Do it"?

Why do people keep on volunteering to help Scout Groups and what could you gain from helping?

Most people volunteer because;

• they love it!
• they get to meet lots of new people
• they get to join in the activities, camps and trips
• they want to put something back into the community
• they get the opportunity to learn new skills
• they want to help local young people to become more rounded and responsible citizens
• they want to be part of one of the best know and most trusted organisations in the World

I don't know how to tie knots or put up a tent?

Well that's OK!.. you'll be surprised how we can put your everyday skills to good use and a training programme is also provided to fill in the gaps.

• "The Scout Association provides adventurous activities and personal development opportunities for 400,000 young people aged 6-25. Internationally, we have over 28 million young people enjoying the benefits of Scouting across 218 countries."
• "Personal development means promoting the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual well-being of the individual, helping them achieve their full potential. In Scouting, we believe that young people develop most when they are 'learning by doing,' when they are given responsibility, work in teams, take acceptable risks and think for themselves."

Interested?

Contact your local District Team look for contact details on their websites or contact Cumbria's Development officer on 01768 862 040 or email Development@CumbriaScouts.org.UK

Further Reading? see http://www.scouts.org.uk/