Squirrels YouShape Award
At Scouts, young people learn how to speak up and take the lead. Our YouShape Awards have been supporting young people to do this in Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Now, it’s time for our youngest section to join in the fun as well, with the launch of the Squirrels YouShape Award.
The Squirrels YouShape Award is split into four badges. There’s the Central badge, which is called YouShape, then three other outer badges called Lead, Represent and Plan. They all go together to form a circle.
Squirrels will earn the Central badge first, before choosing the order in which they earn the rest of the badges. Each Squirrel can decide on their theme, which will help them to shape their YouShape journey and what they do to earn the other badges. For example, they may choose a theme of dinosaurs, flowers, space, sport or helping people. A pair, small group, or even a whole Drey, can decide on the same theme. Squirrels may vote to choose their favourite theme for the Drey, too.
For each badge, the Squirrels will set the requirements and goals to earn each one, deciding what challenge they want to do. For example, for Plan for a flowers theme, they may want to plan a flower spotting walk for the Drey to go on. They’ll work with their volunteer team to decide when they've met each requirement too.
The Squirrels YouShape Award will look different at every Drey, but we suggest that it takes between three and six months for your Squirrels to achieve. The requirements are intended to be spread out across sessions. This means you can continuously listen to, respond to and develop your Squirrel’s interests in what they’ve chosen to focus on.
Your Drey will experience the Squirrels YouShape Award as a group, but each Squirrel will have their own experience of the award, as individuals, pairs or small groups may have their own themes, interests and challenges. This means you might repeat activities to respond to each Squirrel’s different ideas and interests, as well as to develop their own personal leadership skills.
Central badge
The Central badge is all about thinking about what you want to achieve, exploring ideas, finding a theme and making it happen.
Plan
The Plan badge is all about thinking creatively, working together and planning some exciting activities for your programme.
Lead
The Lead badge lets you take the reins. This badge lets you think about supporting others, delivering your Squirrels programme, and stepping up during sessions or Nights Away.
Represent
The Represent badge lets you think about how you’ll tell others about your Squirrels YouShape Award experience. You could engage your community, invite some friends to join the fun or create a work of art.
Uniform and badge placement
The YouShape Award goes on your right arm, under the District and County/Area/Region badges.
Register and log into the brand centre to find certificates you can personalise and award with your badges.
Once a young person decides they’ve met all of a segment’s requirements, they can add the segment to the central badge on their uniform – and line the pattern up.
This is the only badge where young people decide for themselves if they’ve met each requirement.
You may find you’ve already been completing some of the badge requirements as part of your programme. Others might be new.
We’ve compiled a whole range of activity ideas, specifically to help you deliver the YouShape award in your section.
Some requirements might also count towards other badges and awards too.