Rural Areas

Rural communities tend to be small and can't always sustain conventional Sections. In the rural situation where, for example, the population of a small village is only enough to provide three Beaver Scouts, six Cub Scouts and four Scouts, there are simply insufficient numbers of young people, within the Sectional age groups to warrant separate Sections, each with two or more adults.

A more suitable approach is to establish an Integrated Section.

Due to the likelihood of there being fewer adults from which to recruit your adult support, it is also better to make the most effective use of it.

Within rural areas the available population will fluctuate as young people move through the age ranges or migrate. So your three Beaver Scouts, six Cub Scouts and four Scouts may soon become one Beaver Scout, five Cub Scouts and seven Scouts! Leaders need to work across the age ranges and be flexible enough to cope with the changing demands and needs, both in terms of leadership style and programme delivery. They also need to complete training appropriate to the Sections they are working with.

In one development project the village school had just 13 boys and 12 girls aged between 6 and 11 years. After local research and promotion eight joined as Beaver Scouts, 12 as Cub Scouts and two as Scouts. A team of new Leaders, working across all age groups, helped to sustain a new Group with an Integrated Section.

In another project there were sufficient young people to form a separate Beaver Scout Colony, with an Integrated Section being formed for the Cub Scout and Scout age range. Geographical considerations may affect the nature of provision in rural areas.