Local support to help Squirrels reach more communities
It’s been a year since we launched Squirrels across the UK. To reach even more communities, we’re offering more local support.
We're amazed at how much Squirrels has grown. We’ve opened 700 new sections (200 in underrepresented communities) supported by 2,012 brilliant adult volunteers. Thank you to everyone for supporting Squirrels so far.
We’re still not sure if we’re reaching communities where Scouts could have the most impact. OSM data suggests that, even though we’re in the right locations, we still might not be reaching lower income families and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds (see more in our Squirrels monitoring data webinar).
So, we’re committing more local support.
Nights away will be permitted within the Squirrel programme from 2023, and for a limited time will be offering £500 grant to Dreys in IMD 1-5 and who are reaching Black, Asian and minority ethnic young people to help them in their planning and delivery of a nights away experience for Squirrels.
This decision has been backed up by a number of pilot nights away events that found that nights away activities were safe or beneficial for this age group. There will be no restrictions in place relating to this, but leaders should make local judgements of what type and duration of nights away is right for their group. This will be an optional activity and will not be part of the section minimum standards.
More details and guidance will be developed to support volunteers in the planning and running of a nights away experience for this section. The January 2023 edition of POR will include this update to the Squirrels programme – making nights away permitted from that point onwards.
As well as this, and for a limited time, we’re offering Districts who currently have a Squirrel Drey in them a £500 grant. This is to help Districts recruit and train Nights Away Advisors and Nights Away Permit Holders.
We’re still offering new Dreys opening in IMD 1-5 across the UK a £500 start-up grant.
There’s still dedicated support for Cohorts, with professional staff and volunteer coaches around to help you start Squirrels.
We’ll keep partnering with early years experts to find out what’s working and what isn’t for Squirrels locally. We’ll change our approach as we go.
We’ll work with existing Dreys over the coming weeks to get an update on their monitoring data.
We’ll share the Squirrels success story, and our desire to do more, through our communications this week. We’ll also be driving interest to our fundraising campaign to keep supporting this work.
If you’re ready to start a Squirrels Drey in areas you think will reach lower income families, and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, here is how you ask your District Commissioners permission. If you’d like an informal chat with someone in the Early Years Team about opening a Squirrel Drey, please drop them an email.
And finally, we want to say a massive thank you to the #iwill Fund for supporting the roll-out of the project. The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £50 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities.