Racial minorities. - Reaching the under-served?

[Eamonn 61]

I know that I have not spent the time to back up what I'm going to post.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I really am very happy to hear that we as an organization are going to do more to serve more racial minorities.

I hope that this is more than just lip service and that the end result turns out to be more traditional units serving more youth.

From what I have read the Hispanic population is on the rise, to ignore or not pay attention to these youth would be just plain daffy.

 

I was visiting a jail today.

I sat in the waiting room waiting for the person I was going to see.

While I sat there a Hispanic family arrived they were visiting an inmate.

Two very beautiful little girls, one was very young maybe 3 or 4 the other maybe 8 or 10. Mom and Grandma were also with them.

I might be wrong but it seems to me that Hispanic families are very close. While of course the Hispanic men in jail are not by any means Angels. It has been my experience that even in jail they remain close to their families.

Sadly this does not seem to be the case with African-American men.

The percentage of African-American men that end up incarcerated is just staggering.

Many have fathered multiple children to multiple woman. Many of these woman have problems with drugs and end up leaving these children in the care of elderly grandmothers.

Sadly these kids are left with no male role models and no father figure and soon end up in trouble.

Our local news seems to report more and more shootings in the Pittsburgh area many seem to be drug related and do involve young black men.

I'm unsure who outnumbers who? Which population is bigger?

I do feel that reaching the African- American youth is a far bigger challenge than reaching the Hispanic community. But with so many young men ending up dead on the streets of our cities, we have a moral obligation to do every thing we can to get into these areas and try to do what we can.

A friend of mine who lives in Pittsburgh and is African-American was telling me that his son just became an Eagle Scout, the first one in that Troop.

The Troop is about ten years old. He showed me photos of the Eagle Scout COH. It was clear that this Troop did have the community behind it and had a very strong foundation.

 

It can be done, it isn't going to be easy.While I'm all for reaching the Hispanic community, I just hope we also don't forget the other racial minorities.

Eamonn

 

[TheScout 10]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7560034.stm

 

And by 2042 the minorities will be a majority in the US according to new Census Bureau predictions.

[Lisabob 13]

For me, what we really ought to be talking about here is economic status because well-off suburban neighborhoods have the ability to support scout units but poorer urban and rural areas may not.

 

I am with Eamonn in hoping that any new efforts will be geared toward developing traditional scout units that also happen to serve more minority kids. Realistically, this means there needs to be more financial support of units - especially troops/crews, which are more expensive to run than packs - in poorer neighborhoods. I'm not talking so much about paying adult leaders (as in Scoutreach, which I don't think is a good model at all)but more in terms of districts helping to provide gear, subsidizing camping (not just in the summer), etc.. Either that, or we need to work a lot harder at finding strong, active, fairly well-off COs in low income neighborhoods to provide material support to their units, and that too is a challenge because most COs seem to reflect the economic health of their communities. This may also mean that units in better-off parts of a district or council need to buy in to the mission of developing units in lower income areas, and I'm not convinced that would happen. Even among scouters, there's a lot of "me, my, mine" attitude out there.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheScout 10]

I don't know about districts providing equipment and camping subsidies to troops in less well off areas. What ever happened to scouts paying their own way? Every boy can learn how to fundraise. This can help build a work ethic which would surely help them later in life.

[Lisabob 13]

Sure, TheScout, but it is really much harder to fundraise in low income neighborhoods where few people have the extra cash to donate. Particularly in many urban settings, economic segregation is a fact of life in this country today. And although it is always possible for scouts to leave their communities to do their fundraising, this is a much more challenging endeavor and raises other worries (transportation, safety, turf issues with other units already in those other communities, etc.).

 

 

[TheScout 10]

True. But aren't scouts in such economically depressed areas probably the most in need of the work ethic and any such economic life lessons that can be gained from fundraising. After all, they will face a harder lot in life than kids from a relatively affluent suburb. The cycle of economic depression and reliance on handouts must be broken some way some how.

[Lisabob 13]

I think that's a pretty tall order to hand to a bunch of 11 and 12 year old kids who want to become boy scouts, TheScout.

 

Thinking about the equipment (both personal and patrol/troop) that a typical troop might use on a camp out, costs mount quickly. Tents, wood tools, maybe a propane light or two, cooking gear, appropriate sleeping bags and outdoor clothing, flashlight, compass, etc. I'm not talking about the high end gear here, but just serviceable gear so that low income kids can have a decent experience not unlike any other scouts would have. Not to mention food, transportation/travel, and site use fees. Although some of this can be forgone and some can be substituted with cheaper materials, there is a limit to this and it is easy for sticker shock to occur pretty quickly.

 

If you want to start up a troop in a low income area one of the first things parents of prospective new members are going to ask is, how do we pay for all of this? Telling them that they not only have to find ways to pay for their child's personal material (fund raising or not) but also that the kids will be expected to raise sufficient money to buy the bigger ticket troop gear, is rather unrealistic and will almost certainly guarantee failure.

 

Let's keep in mind too, that when we're talking about low income families, we're often talking about single parents, parents working multiple low-wage jobs with inflexible schedules, and neighborhoods where you wouldn't want your kid going out without an adult to attempt to fundraise. If we're talking about poor rural communities, distance becomes an issue for kids attempting to fundraise without significant adult help. So if the burden is going to be met entirely by fundraising, again we need to recognize that this puts a great deal of pressure on the child's parent(s) to assist with that. That's reality in the leafy suburbs too, but middle class families often have more control over their schedules and more personal resources (not just financial either) to help their child with fundraising.

 

The question here is, what's the goal? If the goal is to provide the many benefits of scouting to youth who are traditionally under-served, then a very little support may go a long way toward helping get these units started up and on solid footing so that they can sustain themselves.

 

On the other hand, if the goal is to blame a bunch of young kids for not being able to haul themselves out of poverty sufficiently to afford the things that scouts do, well hey, you'll certainly be able to point to your "success" there.

 

 

 

[TheScout 10]

I don't know. Several years back I made really good money delivering papers when I was 11. My parents made me pay for all my gear when I started scouting. A few weeks of delivering papers took care of that. I made about $70 a week, plus had savings. As an 11 year old I had little to do with my money. I delivered about 60 papers a day, took about 15 minutes. Not too bad. Currently, that paper is having a mighty hard time finding kids to deliver the papers. There used to be a time when there were waiting lists.

 

Besides that:

 

Run Errands

Cut Grass

Shovel Snow

Babysit

Rake Leaves

Walk Dogs

 

And I'm sure others can think of different ways kids can make money. There is always a way if one is willing to put forth the effort. But I suppose it is much more fun to play Xbox or surf the internet instead of actully doing a little work!

 

We all know the dedication an effort it takes to make a successful scouting movement. If people (scouts, parents, CO's) in a community are not willing to make the effort, there is not point of "subsidizing" scouting there.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Then again, if they can afford the xbox or a computer with internet access, then the question equipment cost probably wont be an issue. The scoutreach district in the council I serve provides the basic equipment for camping because these are youth who do not have xboxes, or internet access or even $200 dollar sneakers

[John-in-KC 311]

TheScout...

 

I know families out there where the kids do earn money from chores ... and it's part of the basic family budget.

 

Three generations ago, a kid could take 2-3 wool blankets from home and use them for his bedroll. He'd cut browse in the field for his bed. Have you priced a wool blanket recently? Army surplus, which is about as cheap as it gets, is $35 a pop. A regular wool blanket runs $100 for a twin. CUT BROWSE? That's the antithesis of LNT now.

 

Remember the adage: A recession at your home, where Mom and Dad are working, is a Depression at mine... where they are unemployed. Take a deep breath, and walk a mile in the shoes of these young men whom we as Scouting need to serve.

[Eamonn 61]

Run Errands

Cut Grass

Shovel Snow

Babysit

Rake Leaves

Walk Dogs

Nice list.

But what happens when you live in the high-rise?

No grass.

No Snow

No leaves.

No pets.

Baby sitting is unpaid. Mom or Grandma is out working. Dad is in jail.

 

Sure nice kids from nice neighborhoods can earn money this way, but I'm talking about us doing more to reach kids who don't live in the nice neighborhoods.

Of course we can always do nothing and wonder why it is these young people end up selling drugs?

Eamonn.

 

[Lisabob 13]

TheScout, I am only guessing here. But my guess is that you grew up in a reasonably safe suburban area where there were sidewalks to walk on or safe streets to ride your bike on, as you delivered your papers. I'm guessing you weren't afraid to approach any of your customers' houses for fear of intruding into some violent or illegal activity. I'm guessing that most of the time, your customers had the extra cash to pay their bill for the paper, and maybe they even tipped you a little at Christmas time. I'm guessing you seldom had to worry about being robbed of your weekly paper money on the way home after you went round collecting the payments that week.

 

That mirrors many kids' experiences in working class and middle class neighborhoods. It does NOT mirror economic or other daily realities in truly poor areas. To suppose it does is, I'm sorry to say, rather naive.

 

Try that in some of these inner city neighborhoods where scouting has no presence but plenty of good kids would probably join if given half the chance, and see how long you'd last. Plenty of parents in these kinds of neighborhoods would not dream of letting their 11 year old do what you describe because it is dangerous!

 

Or try that in some very rural areas where there are all of about 5 houses in a mile, no sidewalks, and it would take you a heck of a long time to deliver your 60 daily papers on foot or on a bike.

 

 

[Nike 94]

TheScout, try getting a job delivering papers if you aren't at least 18. This is now an adult job, not one for a kid with a bike to earn some cash.

 

If a unit or district is in an economically depressed area, why shouldn't FoS money be used as seed money to get them up and running with basic equipment?

[TheScout 10]

There seems to be a great deal of pessimism about the state of our urban areas and the capabilities of our youth!

 

I guess we shouldn't help subsidize scout units in such areas. The money would probably be embezzled, any equipment actually got would be destroyed, the kids should be fearful to walk to the meeting places, and if they make it they should be scared of the leaders.

[John-in-KC 311]

Pessimism about the economy? You bet!!

 

Have a friend. He's a great Scouter. Had a six digit job in IT sales. He's been laid off; the customers are not renewing contracts and are declining options to buy.

 

That's on the good side of my metro. I don't know where you are, but around here, as I said, I know kids who are doing chores for folks... but their money isn't discretionary for them! It's basic needs for the family... food, shelter, clothing.