Mia’s Blog – Youth Shaped Programme
As leaders, we would like every young person to shape their own adventure. We need to encourage young people to make more decisions, take responsibility, develop skills, shape their own programmes and take on leadership roles.
There are so many ways that we can make this happen. One example is running a forum for your section to share new ideas and reflect on past activities. This can be done in different ways for different sections.
In Scouting, we are proud that we are able to give young people the opportunity to work in partnership with adults. As young people learn to speak up, be heard and work towards improving something they are passionate about they are gaining incredible learning experience and they are gaining this all the way from Beavers to Network. Without Scouting, these young people may not have gained this experience so early on in life.
I think that one of the most important parts of Scouting is developing leadership skills in young people. From Beavers to Network, this is always a way that young people can be supported to develop and grow. Peer Leadership is a great way to help them on their journey.
Getting young people involved in their programme
Forums give young people the opportunity to give feedback and share their thoughts and ideas and have fun!
Beavers will have ideas of activities and badges they would like to achieve. Ask your beavers to share thoughts with you, and make sure they are included when you are planning the programme. When you have planned the programme and included your young people’s ideas make sure you tell the Beavers how you have used their ideas in the programme. This is very important as this will boost their confidence and make them feel included and listened to.
Cubs can get involved with planning the programme, camps, activities and trips as they will have lots of ideas of what they would like to do. Ensure that you use their ideas when you are planning various things then talk to the Cubs about bow you have used their ideas so they know that they have shaped their programme.
Scouts will have so many ideas of what they would like to do during their time in Scouts. A great way for them to be able to share these ideas would be to run some fun and interactive activities which give them the opportunity to share their feedback. You could ask Scouts to help you plan and run some of these activities.
Explorers will have lots of ideas of what they would like to do in explorers. Run activities to find out what they would like to do in their programme. To take this a step further, Explorers will be planning and running their own programme with support from their leaders.
Network members could work alone or as a group to plan and run activities for the other network members.
