Youth-Shaped Scouting in Cheshire
Youth-shaped scouting means putting young people at the heart of everything we do, shaping their own adventure. This idea has been around since Scouting began over 100 years ago. Young people have brilliant ideas and skills that can help bring scouting forward. The more young people help shape their Scouting experience, the more they’ll enjoy and benefit from it. This is why we want everyone, from the youngest members to older ones, to work together and continue to make scouting the amazing experience it is.
Engaging Young People in Cheshire
The County Youth Lead
The County Youth Lead is responsible for making sure young people shape their porgramme, influence decisions, and take the lead. The Current Youth Lead is Dan Skinner. Dan works closely with the District Youth Leads and the Youth Forum to make sure young people are empowered across the county. The County Youth Lead sits in the Senior Leadership team and broader County Team, ensuring young people are involved in everything we do. As well as working with the uniformed side of scouting the County Youth Lead is an ex-officio member of the board of trustees, here they can make sure that young people are at the centre of the strategy going forward.
The County Youth Forum
The County Youth Forum takes place three times a year. It brings together the district Youth Lead and two 14-18 and two 18-25 representatives from every district. The County Youth Lead organises and runs the forum, the event varies with at least one camp every year. The agenda consists of existing and potential future programmes. To ensure action comes from words, the County Youth Lead share the notes from the Youth Forum with the rest of the County Team. More recently, we have invited and included members from the County Team to talk with the Youth Forum, truly putting young people at the centre of what we do.
Youth Forum on the Road
This is a new initiative that we are trying as a County. Youth Forums are crucial for getting young people’s views and ideas. By bringing this to our activities and events we get more young people involved and get feedback straight away. Watch out for us at our next event.
District Youth Leads
Similar to how there is a County Youth Lead, each district also has a Youth Lead. The District Youth Lead runs the District Youth Forums and is responsible for the Youth-shaped scouting within their district. The District Youth Leads work together with the County Youth Lead to effectively have a Youth Shaped programme.
The District Youth Leads are as follows:
| District | Youth Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alderley and Knutsford | Katie Davies | ||
| Chester and District | George Birch Esme Rippon (Deputy) Sean McNamee (Deputy) | ||
| Ellesmere Port and Neston | Finn Ashworth | ||
| Macclesfield and Congleton | Ben Borg-Heffernan Ephram Graves | ||
| Mersey Weaver | Grace Wheeler Ethan Finlay | ||
| Mid Cheshire | Sophie Woods | ||
| South West Cheshire | Tom Austin | ||
| Warrington East | Ellie Wallington | ||
| Warrington West | Daniel Meadows Sam Crossley |
