Engaging with communities and people
Engaging with communities and people
Engaging and supporting diverse communities helps your local group represent the community that you live in. It reaps benefits, helping you to tap into new volunteers, venue spaces, activity ideas and engaging new young people, Young Leaders, and volunteers.
Planning, delivering and reflecting upon your furthering reach
Before you dive into reaching out to a new community, review the steps below to ensure you're prepared.
It's always useful to sit down as a leadership team and consider planning out what you can all achieve.
Try community mapping to better understand your area and their needs. Consider what you want to do as a team - recruit a particular community, learn and build awareness or be welcoming and inclusive.
Focus on why you wish to engage this community. Find out more about them by chatting to a community leader or having a look at local charities. Finding someone with knowledge will help you understand what's important to the community. If you want to know, ask!
Reaching out to a new community can feel a little daunting. But remember, most community groups will be thrilled you want to engage with them. Check out our step-by-step guide to engaging with a community.
Reach out to a community leader. This might not be a formal leader, it could be an approachable parent that everyone enjoys engaging with.
Think about how you represent your group. You could share imagery that reflects your belief on social media, for example a well-placed rainbow can show you're an LGBTQIA+ friendly group.
Keep an eye on religious holidays and post on social media wishing a happy ‘holiday’.
Create awareness in your group by using some of the activities in the Activity Finder. Share images of the activities to celebrate the experience.
When people join your group, in any capacity, they may have specific needs which you can support to ensure they feel valued and included.
This could mean making tweaks to how you run things, but those tweaks will make all the difference to the person who wishes to take part.
Find out more about supporting participation on welcoming and including, which has more detailed tips.
As a leadership team, consider how your furthering reach is going. Consider the Stop, Start, Continue approach.
Ask yourselves:
- Stop: What isn't working and is there anything that we need to stop doing?
- Start: What could we start doing? What have others tried that we could give a go?
- Continue: What's going well and what could we do more of?
To watch in full screen, double click the video
Want to learn more about furthering reach?
Check out the Squirrel Squad Sessions video for more hints and tips. It's useful for all sections, not just Squirrels!
To watch in full screen, double click the video
There are already lots of examples of furthering reach in Scouts. Check out these real-life stories to discover how Dreys and other Scout sections have been reaching new communities.
Take a look at our support and guidance to help you connect with members of the Muslim community.