The Scouts — In Transition

The Scouts, you know them. They’ve been around for over a hundred years, they’re a youth organisation dedicated to developing the minds of young people through informal education and outdoor activities.

Baden-Powell? Be prepared? Do a good turn daily? (I didn’t know that one!) Bob-a-Job?

It all comes flooding back with a bit of a nudge. Yes The Scouts.

Let me tell you something about The Scouts.

Let me tell you about how they’re a perfect example of an organisation in transition from the transactional to the relational.

Yes, and if it can happen there it can happen anywhere.

It’s transformational…

A Million Hands Initiative (Becoming Relational)

The Scouts A Million Hands Initiative is impressive in itself for its boldness and intent. It is a radical example of creating Community Impact.

The Scouts define Community Impact as:

young people taking action in the service of others, creating positive social change that is of benefit to the communities we are trying to help but also the young people taking part. That means that and projects/initiatives we develop should:

• Be relevant to the needs of the community we’re trying to help.
• Genuinely change the lives of others.
• Genuinely develop the young person taking part.

The relational factors within this statement are important. There is a lot going on here. I’ll let you step in and unpack it, just consider what is required to actually do this and the multiple perspectives involved.

The Old Way (Transactional)

The Scouts are such a great example because they are famous for an old initiative which demonstrates perfectly how transactional thinking works.

There may be some amongst you who do not know what Bob-a-Job was.

Bob-a-Job was a Scouts initiative whereby scouts would go out around their local area knocking on residents doors looking for odd jobs to do.

Cut a lawn. Tidy a garden. Remove some rubbish. Fix up a shed.

In return a donation was made (a bob which was roughly five pence or a shilling). Thus Bob-a-Job was born.

The Scouts were happy. The community was happy.

Transaction complete.

YES?

It will hopefully become clearer.

The New Way (Relational)

With their A Million Hands initiative The Scouts appear to be moving away from this transactional model of operating.

They must have asked deep questions about their purpose as an organisation, the role they play within society, the needs of the scouts, the lives of those they work with and the communities which they are a part of.

What they have developed from this is a programme which has the potential to generate immense social value.

Here are some ways in which A Million Hands is (relationally) different.

• The young people themselves were asked what social needs they cared about and would like to do something about.
• The Scouts recognised that they needed to work with other organisations and developed relationships with partner organisations to provide the missing skills, knowledge and resources they needed.
• With the partner organisations they developed high quality Resource Packs to support and guide the efforts, ensuring that the social need and development of participants remained at the core.
• The young people worked together as groups.
• They developed understanding and empathy as a natural result of their participation.
• They worked directly with the community and with those with social need.
• They developed and decided upon their own social action and approach.
• They directly undertook and completed the social action.
• They reflected upon their learning and experience.
• They went on to tell their story to the local community and encourage others to help.

Now that’s worth a lot more than a few bob in anyone’s book.

This is what I understand as transactional and relational thinking.

I believe that this ‘relational’ practice can be applied almost anywhere, in any circumstances, by any partners, with any group of any age, and for any social need?

That’s world changing.

Let’s look a little closer at how this particular programme works.

Disability through the A Million Hands programme

The partner organisations for the disability aspects of the initiative are Leonard Cheshire Disability and Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Their involvement is recognition of the value of working with partners to develop a higher quality offering and combining your assets and resources to meet each of your organisational aims and goals.

Together they have worked with The Scouts to develop a Resource Pack to be used by Scout Groups who are participating in the initiative (there are also separate resource packs for different age groups).

Unfortunately I’m not able to publish an entire resource pack here but I will publish a contents section to give you a flavour.

It’s staggeringly brilliant.

They learn together through activities which ask them to put themselves into other people’s shoes. They work as a group to understand the difficulties people might face on a daily basis. They are taught how to relate to people with disabilities and treat them with mutual respect.

Then they start working outwards to discover what improvements could be made locally. First within their own group, the fresh perspective of young eyes will always bring important insights!

They continue to extend their work further out into the local community and even to local shops and businesses.

They’re encouraged to record where improvements can be made and then contact people and organisations who may be able to help.

This is radical stuff.

The amount of social good which can come through this programme is mind blowing.

It develops young people, it develops community, it improves society and it benefits people’s lives.

The thought and the genuine intent to do good shines through everywhere.

I wish it every success.

A changing role of charities?

The initiative also demonstrates an exciting role for charities.

The main reasons that charities exist are to:

• raise awareness
• inform and educate
• benefit their beneficiaries

Generally charities achieve these ends entirely within their own organisation. They raise funds which they then spend on the other activities.

When we look at this partnership with The Scouts we can see that fundraising is not the primary focus yet the return for the charities involved is a perfect match for their primary reasons for existing.

This is a very different model of working which extends the charity out into the communities they serve, to the places where their beneficiaries live, all through their involvement with The Scouts A Million Hands initiative.

All of those more mindful minds and each of those small actions gradually add up to build a better world for everyone.

It’s long lasting impact with society wide reach.

The future of Social Change

This is what social change can look like when we combine our resources and work together and the costs are miniscule compared to the amount of social value which can be released.

What The Scouts have done can be extended out into almost every area of society, ages, groups, and needs.

With the right network of resources, support and partners:

• Any organisation or business could participate in developmental educational programmes which link into local community development efforts or projects of social benefit.
• Town Councils and local authorities could connect their strategies with local resources, assets and communities.
• Community Payback schemes could be replaced by genuinely engaging educational programmes which develop social skills and empathy.
• Employment Schemes could develop and do at the same time.
• the possibilities are endless.

Working in this way could begin to change the relationship that we have with the charity sector who are seen in quite a negative light for many reasons.

Some (but not all) are over marketed, grossly advertised, fund chasing and competitive. Bad actors in a harmful system which has apparently lost its way.

This is such a shame when we consider their roots and their reason for being — to change peoples lives for the better — to make the world a better place.

Yet the insight, knowledge, and experience which is concentrated in their organisations, in their beneficiaries lives and those of their family members and friends, this is potentially their greatest and most valuable asset.

Could we connect this asset with expertly developed community education to benefit communities and groups participating in community development efforts and social action?

This could help to change the nature and the role of charities from what is crass and managerial — transactional and ‘the old way’ — to something far more more holistic and meaningful.

Moving to the relational — working together, working differently and genuinely considering the perspectives of all and the unrealised potential within those relationships.

That’s exciting!

Socially Enterprising as a College of Society and Community Development

When I first saw The Scouts A Million Hands initiative it resonated with my own thoughts on how social action could be done in the future.

It helped to shape my thinking about what a platform for social action could be. Not just a social network + social action, but much, much more.

Socially Enterprising is many things working together — it’s a system for improving a system.

As part of the Socially Enterprising model it’s possible to create a type of education which sits outside of the traditional constraints of bricks and mortar, extending its use and modelling its purpose to what people need to improve the world around them.

Practical, experiential and action oriented.

Immersive, empathetic and developmental.

An educational system in consistent development with civil society, one that allows us to become more human just as much as it helps us to get things done.

A Million Hands isn’t a million miles away from where I feel we should aim.

Just as The Scouts are demonstrating; we can do things differently and we can do them together. The world will be all the better for it.