Circular No.IAR-C13-2024-EN
Subject: Launching the Youth Consultations 2024
Dear friends in Scouting,
We are pleased to invite the National Scout Organizations of the Interamerican Region to participate in the Youth Consultations 2024, which seek to provide spaces for girls, boys, adolescents, and young people to participate and acquire a deeper understanding of the different interests and problems that affect their lives, focused on their participation in the Scout Movement.
1.Background and context.
The Strategic Plan 2021-2024 of the World Organization of the Movement in the strategic area of Youth Engagement seeks to:
- Strengthen the Scout Movement as a non-formal education leader, equipping young people with skills to solve local and global problems and ensuring their effective participation in decision-making at all levels.
- Evaluate and update current strategies and establish new visions, supporting inclusive youth leadership programs that guarantee equal opportunities for all people in the Scout Movement.
To contribute to the achievement of these objectives, taking advantage of the possibility of having a greater reach using virtual platforms, we hope to convene as many children, adolescents, and young people as possible to provide them with the tools that allow them to take an active part in the decision-making processes, not only at the unit level but also to assume roles and responsibilities at other levels whiting Scouting and in the community at large.
2. Objectives
The objective of the Youth Consultations this year is to offer an open opportunity for children, adolescents, and young people of the Interamerican Region to express their opinions on the Scout Movement's impact on their lives.
We will investigate how the experiences and values transmitted within the Scout Movement influence young people's personal development, social skills, and civic commitment as they integrate into society.
3.Participants
Youth Consultations will be open to children, adolescents, and youth members of the Interamerican Scout Region's national Scout organizations (NSOs) between the ages of 7 and 29.
Some benefits for people who participate in youth consultations are:
- Develop leadership skills. This space allows young people to take on leadership roles and participate in meaningful discussions and debates. By actively participating in these activities, young people develop leadership skills, including effective communication, teamwork, decision-making, and problem-solving.
- Participate in decision-making. By having opportunities to express their thoughts, young people can influence decisions that affect scout youth. By giving their opinions and contributing to discussions, young people can help shape the policies and strategies implemented in the Region.
4.Structure of the Process
For the Youth Consultations, questionnaire-type instruments have been designed for four age ranges so that the questions and the way they are asked correspond to the level of development of girls, boys, adolescents, and young people.
The Youth Consultations will be conducted in a mixed modality (in-person and virtual), favoring participation in the virtual modality. This means that NSOs can decide on the best way to implement the process, aiming to achieve greater reach.
Specific questionnaire-type forms have been prepared for the following age ranges, which will be available in the two working languages of the Region (English and Spanish):
- Cub Scout Pack - children 7 to 10 years old
- Scout Unit - adolescents 11 to 14 years old
- Venturers and Rovers - youth 15 to 21 years old
- Young adults 22 to 29 years old.
Access to the questionnaire
- a. Internet access
- The digital questionnaire can be answered on any mobile device with Internet access: computers, electronic tablets, or smartphones. People can choose their preferred language when entering the survey.
- b. Access without internet
- In exceptional cases, participants can complete the questionnaires in print; the offline format is available for download in the preferred language.
If a printed form is used, it is vitally important that the person who accompanied the process shares the results using the digital questionnaire. Otherwise, the responses will not be recorded.
5.Key dates
The Youth Consultations will be disseminated using the official channels of the Interamerican Region from July 15, 2024, to September 16, 2024. The support of the national structures in this dissemination is vital.
After the closing date of the youth consultations, an evaluation and analysis of the results obtained will be carried out to report the findings. The information will be shared through a descriptive report.
The Annex Document is available at this link:
Guide for Youth Consultations.
6.Benefits of Youth Consultations
The World Scout Bureau and National Scout Organizations involved in the process will benefit from the process by:
a. Comprehensively understanding the interests and issues of young people
- Identifying key issues: determining their main interests and concerns.
- Regional variations: understanding how these interests and issues vary across different countries and cultural contexts within the Region.
- Participation strategies: developing specific strategies to increase youth participation in Scouting activities tailored to different subgroups' particular needs and interests.
b. Proposing youth-focused Scout programs
- Program relevance: ensuring that educational programs are relevant to young people's current interests and issues.
- Innovative initiatives: introducing new initiatives and activities within Scouting that address contemporary challenges and interests.
C. Develop enhanced communication and feedback mechanisms
- Feedback loops: Establish regular feedback mechanisms to keep the dialogue between youth and Scout leadership open and ensure ongoing responses to their needs and concerns.
- Communication channels: Improve communication channels to convey information and updates relevant to youth in Scouting effectively.
d. Continuous improvement
- Use the findings from these evaluations to improve Scouting programmes and initiatives continually.
7.Communications
Consultations for the 7-10 and 11-14 age ranges will be promoted exclusively through the communication channels of NSOs and their territorial and local structures.
Promotion for the consultations aimed at young people aged 15 to 29 will be through the Interamerican Region's social networks. We request the support of all the NSOs in the Region to share the information on their institutional web pages, social networks, or any other means of institutional communication that reaches the territorial and local structures.
8.Communications Pack
We have created a series of content and communication tools to communicate in a unified way. We invite you to use them, adapting the content to your localities, channels, and audiences. The important thing is that more scouts are informed about the possibility of participating in the Consultation.
This link contains logos, templates, examples of publications for social networks, key messages, and other graphics in English and Spanish.
Informative Webinars
- Objectives:
- To present the framework of the Youth Consultations 2024: what they are, how they work and what NSOs should take into account when implementing them.
- Audiences: Adults at all levels of NSOs in the region.
9.Final considerations
- Participation in the Youth Consultations will be open to all girls, boys, adolescents, and young people who are members of the NSOs of the Interamerican Region, so no particular registration process is necessary.
- Participants' information will be handled according to the WOSM Global Data Protection Policy. Their responses will be considered personal opinions and not representative of their NSOs.
- For any questions regarding this circular, please contact us at [email protected]
Yours in Scouting,
Diana Carrillo
Regional Director
World Scout Bureau, Interamerica Support Centre