Community Impact
Community Impact
Making the world a better place.
As Scouts, we're always striving to make the world better than we found it. Over the last one hundred years, the issues we’ve tackled have evolved and changed, but our young people’s drive to make a positive impact remains constant. Across Scotland, Scouts are choosing to take action on the key issues that matter most to them.
It's a testament to our young people and volunteers that over a century later, Scouts are still making a difference in their local communities and around the world, on the issues that matter to them.
Callum Holt, Scotland Commissioner Community Impact
Community Impact
We know our young people are passionate about helping their local communities. By 2025, we're aiming to have 50% of Scouts in Scotland taking part in projects that have a positive impact on their communities. This is one of the four key outcomes within the #SkillsForLife strategy.
Community Impact Staged Activity Badge
The ‘Community Impact Staged Activity Badge’ is intended to make it as easy as possible to engage Scouts in every section. There are five stages of the badge:
Identify the need
Plan action
Take action
Learn and make more change
Tell the world
The award is designed to be youth-led, ensuring young people are involved in deciding what issues matter to them, and what actions to take while being supported by the leadership team.
Check out the case study below to see an example of how a group could work through the Community Impact Staged Badge:
A Million Hands
Over the past one hundred years, the issues we’ve tacked have evolved and changed, but our young people’s drive to make a positive impact remains constant. A Million Hands is a fantastic and easy way for us to take action and achieve the Community Impact Staged Badge. This programme provides volunteers with ready-made activities centered around our new themes.
In 2019, our young people told us they were passionate about taking action on the following themes:
Protecting our environment (supported by WWF)
Ending homelessness (supported by Crisis in Scotland)
Supporting refugees and displaced children (supported by Save the Children)
Better mental health for all (supported by SAMH)
Understanding disability (supported by National Autistic Society Scotland)
Kindness in every community (supported by British Red Cross)
Scouts for Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs)
Imagine the impact of 50 million Scouts working as active citizens to leave this world a little better than we found it - that’s the power of Scouts for SDGs!
The Sustainable Development Goals (or Global Goals) are a collection of 17 interlinked goals that provide a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all of us. The SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
In November 2018, Bear Grylls, World Chief Ambassador, launched Scouts for SDGs at the United Nations in New York. This builds on the United Nations 17 Global Goals ranging from ‘No Poverty’ to ‘Good Health & Wellbeing. This was the largest mobilisation of young people to tackle the big issues facing the world. The aim is to deliver two million local projects and to provide an additional three billion hours of service by 2030.
Find out more in the video below:
Scouts for SDGs are at the heart of delivering community impact and help you gain your Community Impact Staged Badge. For more information on Scouts for SDGs, including logging your projects on the world map, please click here.
Looking for activities to deliver Scouts for SDGs? We created this resource with ScotDec.
If your Group Executive is looking for ways to become sustainable check out project ideas from across the world. You can make your hall sustainable by involving your young people and turning it into a youth shaped activity.
Youth Shaped Community Impact
We want to ensure young people are shaping their Scouting. Community Impact is designed to ensure this happens from the get-go! A really simple way to get started is by taking part in the ‘Spoiled for choice’ activity.
UK Parliament Week is a fantastic opportunity to engage with your local MSP or MP, and encourage young people to think about the issues that matter most to them. Check out the activity pack below to help kickstart the process:
Local Support
Running community impact projects doesn’t need to be a challenge. Our Scotland Commissioner (Community Impact) and their team are on hand to provide advice and support to Groups / District / Regions via telephone and email support.
For Districts & Regions, our Community Impact team are more than happy to run focused development workshops with you on how you can provide the tools to volunteers to create impactful projects.
To contact the team please email Callum.Holt@scouts.scot
