30 December 2008
Intimations of Boy Scouts Changes
Posted by admin under: recruitment .
For anyone with even the slightest understanding of demographics the lack of participation by Hispanics in the Boy Scouts of America is troubling. I’ve wondered about it and there have been numerous articles trying to figure out what is going on and how to address it. Julianna Barbassa has put together another article on this subject and not only does it highlight the issue, but what sounds like the likely direction the BSA is taking regarding it.
One in five children under 18 is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. But they make up only 3 percent of Scouts.
Cronk made Hispanic outreach a focus after he realized that just translating brochures into Spanish, or combining Cub Scouting with soccer, was not enough to meet the goal of doubling Hispanic membership by the group’s centennial in 2010.
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To spread the word, the Scouts gathered a committee of Hispanic leaders, including the CEO of AT&T’s wireless unit, a U.S. senator from Florida and the archbishop of the Diocese of Laredo.
In 2009, the Boy Scouts is kicking off pilot programs in six heavily Latino cities, from Fresno, Calif., to Orlando to test ways of introducing Scouting to immigrant parents. The group is also planning radio and television spots, hiring bicultural, Spanish-speaking staffers, partnering with churches that serve Hispanics and shaping programs to fit the family-oriented community.
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Scouts will have to work with Latinos’ strong family connections and relax the focus on individual achievement, Cammarota said. Creating activities where younger boys learn from the older ones —- much as they rely on siblings and cousins within the extended family —- will also feel more comfortable.
“They’d be better off starting with a carne asada in a city park,” Cammarota said. “Sending their kids away on their own, that’s not familiar.”
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As a dozen boys wearing the light blue Soccer and Scouting jerseys tumbled into an auditorium in San Jose’s Seven Trees Elementary School, nearly breathless from a game played in the December chill, it was clear they loved the program —- certainly the soccer part of it. But the connection to Scouting remained tenuous.
I’ve commented on what I think is the wrong direction of the Soccer and Scouting program. I don’t think it will result in a strengthened BSA although it may spawn a more character-based soccer program.
We already know that the older boys are supposed to be guiding the younger ones. In a well-run program that happens. Too often it doesn’t. It sounds like there will be new emphasis put on that aspect of the traditional BSA model.
The big change here sounds like pulling away from personal achievement and becoming more inclusive of family even in the older boy program. One dad in our troop has a wild theory. Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts will become more like each other with more family participation in all programs. He also believes that the Venturing program will supplant the Girl Scouts as the choice in adventure for girls as the GSUSA moves in their leadership-focused direction. Venturing will become more like the old BSA program, but with mixed genders so that the BSA will effectively become co-ed as Scouts are in other countries.
The Boy Scouts of America may or may not succeed as well as it has in the past, but the likely growth of the Hispanic community in the national demography will certainly affect the future program.
Update: Found the same story in Spanish, which seems appropriate, so I felt like linking it here.
- Another Clue on Hispanic Scout Recruitment
- Soccer and Scouting
- Latino Boy Scout Recruiting a Hard Sell
- Racist Criticism of Boy Scouts of America
- OK GSUSA, Hispanics Eager
