Get More Young People Involved
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Bring more young people in
Take a moment to think about your local area. What’s going on in the community, and what does the community need right now? There may be new schools or housing developments nearby, or there could be specific social groups you want to engage with. Have a look at our furthering reach pages for more information.
Take a look at some of our top tips for bringing more young people into Scouts, as well as how to keep our current members engaged and active throughout all our Scout sections.
The obvious reason that young people leave Scouts is that they’re not enjoying it any more. Providing a quality programme is crucial to keeping your sections going.
A quality programme is challenging, relevant and rewarding for every young person. Use the Programme Development Toolkit to see if you’re offering your young people an experience that’ll keep them coming back for more.
Programme planning doesn’t need to be a chore.
Our Activity Finder is full of amazing activity ideas. Use it to give your programme a boost and offer your young people the opportunity to learn important skills and have mind-boggling adventures.
Keeping strong, positive connections between the sections can really help to make sure your young people don’t drop off when it's time to move up. For tips on how to prepare your young people to move up to the next section, have a look at the following resources:
When we think about waiting lists, we can mean a ‘register of interest’, which includes anyone who is too young to join the section at the moment, or a ‘joining list’, which includes anyone who is old enough to join Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts or Explorers and is waiting for a space to become available. These lists could be separate or together.
When you consider your waiting list, it's worth having a think about why there maybe a waiting list for your section. Ask yourself, could the venue you meet in cater for more young people? Would you need more adults to manage a larger section? Is your waiting list the opportunity to open a new section? Can close by Groups offer them places?
Don’t panic about where the new adult volunteers will come from; look at the get more volunteers involved pages for some hints and tips. By bringing in more young people it will increase the number of adults you can ask to join your team.
It's a good idea to review your waiting list at the start of each school term so that you have an accurate picture of future vacancies, and of times when you are likely to be full. It's important to keep your District informed so that they can help you find spaces for all young people who want to join, so nobody misses out.
If you do have a waiting list and parents don’t want to go to other groups then it’s a good idea to keep in regular contact with the parents by email or phone. You might invite them to follow your Groups public Facebook page.
If you have a waiting list of 10 or more young people have you thought about opening a second section on a different evening? Go to start a new sections pages for ideas about what to do. Here is an example letter for you to use when announcing your new section open event.
Bring a friend evening
A bring-a-friend evening is an easy way to boost numbers. Are your young people having fun? Do they tell their friends about it? Get them to invite them along one evening.
Make the most of social media
Are you on social media? Are you visible to everyone? Are you making use of Instagram, Facebook and X? Regular posts that show the amazing things you are doing will help to promote Scouts.
Visit schools
Organising a visit to a local school is a brilliant way to tell more young people about the fun they could be having every week at Scouts. They’re bound to want to get involved.
Open Events
Open events are a great way to showcase the Scouts. You can invite young people along to have a go at a range of exciting Scouts activities, such as cooking on campfires and making recycled rockets.
Run an open eventTaster sessions
Taster sessions build on open events you may have held. They're an opportunity for new young people to try out Scouts over a few weeks to see if it’s something they’d like to do regularly.
Recruiting Explorers
Making connections with local schools and colleges is a good way to recruit Explorers. It’s also important to focus on making sure that existing Scouts are having a great experience. If your Scout programme is really strong, they’ll want to move up into Explorers.