The climbing wall of youth involvement

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The climbing wall has been created to assist the development of youth involvement in Scouting, and identifies seven steps for youth involvement.

It is important to understand that improving youth involvement is not simply a case of moving up the wall and staying there; it is a fluid model, and your position on the wall will change over time and as the young people in your section change.

For example, when the young people in your section are new they will require more guidance, and the activity, for example planning a camp, will be at a lower level on the wall.

As your young people begin to use their initiative more for subsequent events then your section will move up the wall, but when these young people move on and new members join, the process may start again.

Your section can also be at different levels for different activities. These are some examples of how activities within a Cub Pack can be at different levels, and these examples can be applied to all sections:

If leaders ask the Cubs what they would like to do next term and the decision on what ends up in the programme is shared between adults and young people, then this would be level 6 on the climbing wall.

If the Cubs give their views on what they would like to be included, and these views inform adult-made decisions about the content of the programme, for example those made at leader’s meetings, then this is level 5.

If adults plan a camp, and Sixers are assigned the role of showing other Cubs how to put out their sleeping bags, then this is level 4, as the Cubs have been told what to do rather than coming up with the idea themselves.

Anything above and including level 4 is classed as youth involvement, and for some activities, level 5 or 6 may be the most appropriate, so you do not always have to achieve level 7 in everything your section does for effective youth involvement to be in place.

Youth involvement is about giving young people the opportunity to get involved; the level at which they do this needs to be right for you, your Leadership team and the young people themselves.

Download the climbing wall of youth involvement handout here.