Community Impact in Squirrels

Community Impact refers to activities that young people do to make a positive difference to others, their community or the environment.

Activities include fundraising, sharing causes in the community (such as making cards for a care home) or running campaigns in their local area (such as putting up posters about how to look after the environment). 

Doing Community Impact in Squirrels can be that easy through the range of fun activities available on the activity finder. Check out the range of Squirrels activities achieving Community Impact that we have mapped across all parts of the Squirrels badge programme.

There should be discussion with young people to decide what Community Impact activity they'd like to take part in and why it's important to them and the world around them.

As Scouts, we’re always striving to leave the world a little better than we found it.

Over the last one hundred years, the issues we’ve tackled have evolved and changed, but our young people’s drive to make a positive impact remains constant.

We want to empower more young people to take a stand. Young people feel empowered when they are included in decisions about them and their communities and sharing what matters to them. It's important to start youth-led Scouting and Community Impact right from the start, with the Squirrels.

Young Leaders play an integral role in Scouting and recent research has shown the benefits of young leaders in the Squirrels.

Social Action is a great opportunity to get young leaders involved. Encourage them to run a meeting discussing different types of action the group could take, ask them to help the young people in the group decide which action they want to take part in and what they'd like to do.

Young leaders are creative, encouraging and skilled at talking to this younger age group. Encourage them to take the lead on a social action activity to benefit the young people and their community.

Explore the help others section of the website to keep up to date on the social action campaigns that groups have been getting involved in all over the UK.

Check out the Million Hands campaign to access resources and activity ideas from our partners, who are working to encourage young people to make a positive contribution to the world around them.