#Goodforyou

is our hashtag for recruiting adults into Scouting, whatever role they can take and how much time they can contribute

Tempting people to volunteer to take on a role in Scouting – uniformed leadership, Trustees or helping out in other ways – is always a hard task.

Promoting that Scouting is #Goodforyou is a start. Giving back will improve wellbeing, equips volunteers with skills for the future and helps make new friends – and memories.

Does your Group or Unit have someone specifically responsible for recruiting and retaining adults in Scouting? Maybe that is a job that needs filling by an occasional volunteer just for that task!

Scouting recruitment resources

The Scout HQ website has a wealth of recruitment resources:

The main page is https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/growing-scouts/ This has a number of quick links and sub pages to explore.

A framework for recruiting more volunteers can be found at: https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/growing-scouts/get-more-volunteers-involved/

The new film, ‘This is Scouts,’ is here to help you recruit young people and volunteers in your area. It’s ideal for open evenings, AGMs etc. Take a look and download it from The Scout Brand Centre – search ‘This is Scouts’ once logged in.

Quick links

– request support, includes access to project support for your recruitment as well as six steps for recruiting volunteers and four ways of keeping amazing volunteers

– recruitment toolkit, which includes a range of ideas about recruiting Adults into Scouting

More Scouting resources

Scout Brand Centre

Have you thought of creating a newsletter to stick on a library notice board showing Adults in Scouting? The template for it is on The Scout Brand Centre.

The Scout brand website provides a lot of resource for Groups and Units to create distinctive posters and other material – both in print and on-line.

There are specific recruitment poster templates featuring the #Goodforyou hashtag as well as Scout brand ambassadors. The website also includes thank-you and recognition material to enable Groups and Units to boost your team!

Log-in required, but easy to set up.

Other useful website 

World Organisation for the Scout Movement provides some additional resources and ideas about different ways of thinking about recruitment here as well as further recruitment toolkits

Here’s a link to a YouTube video from Northamptonshire Scouts which helps with understanding the process – you can find it here

South London Scouts have a page on recruitment and have developed a downloadable interactive successful recruitment checklist. You can find the page here

Durham Scouts have put all the HQ resources into a handy list of activities which you can find here This includes a video on the appointment journey, but this is changing and we will be putting more information on the volunteer journey on our Richmond District website here in due course.

Weatherby District Scouts recently held a successful recruitment workshop and more information can be found on their SharePoint site here. The presentation itself isn’t available but the pack of handouts given to all participants gives a good idea as to its content. The site also provides a link to Central Yorkshire Scouts growth and development resources available to support Groups and Units with recruiting and retaining adult volunteers here

 Group or Unit websites

Does your group or unit have a volunteer page? See what other groups have done. For example, 4th Braintree here and 1st Westhill here  Does your Group or Unit website have an e-mail address or on-line form for people to register interest in volunteering?

District team support

Website

If people want more general information about Adults in Scouting, the District Website address is: https://www.richmondscouts.org.uk/adult-volunteers-18 and which includes an enquiry form. It also provides a link to the Scout UK website: https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteer/volunteering-with-scouts/

Groups and Units can advertise their pressing leader vacancies on the District website page which you can find here. To do so, you need to write some details for the District digital team to turn them into an advert. Send your enquiry to digital@richmondscouts.org.uk 

Community Engagement

Seeking opportunities to engage with the local community through partnerships may be one way of broadening your recruitment.

We suggest Scout Groups and Explorer Units to find local opportunities to be seen out and about on worthwhile community projects and that adults in Scouting are having fun too! The District can assist with lending branding material, so that people are aware that there are Scouts about.

We however think that the following are not appropriate for Scouts (including adult leaders) – to marshal the public at private events, to direct cars in car parks (except adult leaders or supporters raising funds for Scouting), serve food or drink or sell items for commercial profit.

Richmond CVS

Richmond CVS supports all charity, community and voluntary activity in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Their website includes a volunteer recruitment portal, to which many Scout Groups are already registered. The link to register or login can be found here

District Team contact

For more help with recruiting adults in Scouting, contact the Assistant District Commissioner for Growth and Development e-mail: growth@richmondscouts.org.uk