Building Diversity Awareness & a Diverse Cub Scout Pack

[khbaker 10]

Hello! By way of introduction -- I'm a Tiger Den Leader who's "working my Wood Badge Ticket" - I'm also an Eagle Scout and was an Asst. Scoutmaster for a local troop before my son was born. At the sage advice of my Scoutmaster at the time, took 6 years off until he was old enough to join Tiger Cubs. So here we are...

 

My Wood Badge diversity ticket item is to investigate ways of building 1) a more diverse Cub Scout pack; and 2) more diversity awareness amongst our boys.

 

Therefore, I'm looking to network with some scouters of color, scouters who lead particularly diverse packs/troops, or those of you who have successfully brought some good diversity programming to your packs.

 

If you're open to having a 30-40 minute conversation on this topic, please send me an email or private message and we can arrange a time. If you're in the Northwest Chicago area, I'd be glad to meet you for a cup of coffee or lunch (I'd even buy)

 

I'll be glad to post a summary of the best ideas and suggestions that I'm able to gather back to the forum (i.e. I need to write these up for my ticket, so it'll be easy enough for me to copy that back here)

 

YiS,

Kyle Baker

Tiger Den Leader - Pack 857

Sycamore District / Blackhawk Area Council / Cary, IL

C-25-08 "I used to be an Eagle..."

[Narraticong 15]

Welcome to Cubs Kyle!

 

I would suggest that diversity comes in many "colors" other than the color of our skin. I think sometimes we tend to focus on the obvious.

 

Diversity also comes in the "color" of socio-economic differences, religious differences, family makeup, etc.

 

If you look at your pack in those terms, you may find a great deal of diversity already. Do you have boys with learning disabilities? Boys from single parent homes? Boys with unemployed parents? Boys from different religious backgrounds, or no religious background at all? I'll bet we can all answer yes to some of those questions.

 

If you choose to particularly focus on color, you must first ask why that is an issue in your pack. Are other units in your area diverse? Are there units in your area made up primarily of "scouts of color"? Find the answers to those questions.

 

My son's pack was from a relatively diverse school in terms of ethnicity. In my years as a Den Leader, we never once talked about recruiting by that factor. But we always had a "diverse" group. It seems that when we did "boy talks" in the classrooms, boys of all backgrounds tended to get excited about the things we did.

 

In other words, run a top notch program and you will have all kinds of boys. Genuinely welcome every boy and his family. Find every parent something to do. If you are inclusive, everyone will feel welcome. Apply the "Golden Rule" to everyone and you will find all types of kids joining your group.

 

I think it is important to remember that we are all part of the "Boy" Scouts of America. Boys of different backgrounds are more alike than they are different.

 

 

 

 

[khbaker 10]

Thank you Narraticong -

 

I'll admit that I purposely fixated on the racial demographic aspect.

 

Most of our boys attend a school that self-reports as 98%+ caucasian - there are virtually no African American families in the area. We have just a few (1-2) boys of Asian-American background and 1-2 Hispanic boys in the Pack (about 50 boys total). We do have a couple boys with ADHD- and sensory-type issues in the pack.

 

So my question is really centered on building our (racially/ethnically) diversity proficient (yes, proficient is probably the wrong word, but "aware" is also probably the wrong word... so forgive the wording...)

 

Thanks again!

[NeilLup 13]

Check out the 21st century Pioneer Award offered by the Boston Minuteman Council.

 

http://www.tinyurl.com/pioneer21st

 

We specifically had your concerns in mind when we created this award. There are several age appropriate levels of the award, two of which are for Cub Scouts. When the requirements are completed, the Scouts can earn a patch.

[DeanRx 69]

I'd say look at the diversity you already have and build on it. I am the CM for a 53 member pack.

 

In it we have families that barely make enough to pay rent, and we have a couple families I'm pretty sure make into the mid-six figures. So, there's economic diversity.

 

We have several scouts (being in San Diego) that have a hispanic background, a couple of leaders that have qualified and wear the interpreter badge... there's ethnic diversity. We have several families that have 1st generation immigrants as parents, Indian, Canadian, English, French, Viet Namese, Pacific Islander (Philipino) and Scottish to just name a few off the top of my head.

 

We have scouts from different religious backgrounds, some LDS, some Catholic, at least one family I know is Jewish and at least one more that is Hindu. I would bet we have several with little religious background. There's your religious diversity.

 

We have scouts in accelerated academics, we have others that take after school tutoring to keep up. We have at least two ADHD kids that I know of, and one mildly autistic child in the pack. So there's developmental diversity.

 

Bottom line - its not what makes us different that counts. I always attempt to emphasize what makes us alike despite these differences. We talk about respect and understanding. We discuss and ask for input as to each families customs for given holidays. Just the point of introducing the kids to the fact that some of their friends and fellow scouts may not have a Christmas Tree (and WHY). This gets them thinking about, "Yeah, this kid is a different religion than me, practices different customs, BUT we are still good friends, hang out, do scouts together, and he's cool..."

 

That to me is the point of making kids "aware" of diversity. Its not so much about celebrating differences as it is being aware and respectful of them. Also, seeing how alike we all are despite some differences. While at the same time, removing the cloud of mystery (i.e. hey - he's different than me... that must mean he's wierd..) that left unaddressed can often lead to misunderstandings, intolerance, and eventually prejudice as the kids get older.

[HobcawChaos 10]

Here's what the demographics look like in our GS service unit in SC. Schools in our particular area are roughly 50:40:10 white:black:hispanic. Troops tend to divided along racial lines but there are a handful of more mixed - say 80W:20B - troops. The AME church (African Methodist Episcopal) sponsors several large, active troops. These are composed of predominately African American girls. Catholics are found througout but the local Catholic church sponsors strong troops as well. The Jewish and Muslim populations are very small so I have no idea on them. When we get together for service area or council activities, they all mix and work well together but the troops are still rather segregated.

[hotdesk 10]

Kyle,

 

I am a Committee Chairman for Boy Scout Pack 134 in McHenry, IL. Our Pack is prodominatly latino. It appears that our Council might have encouraged ticket items regarding diversity. I am working with a Pack from Woodstock, IL and we are working to hold an activity between our Cub Scout Packs.

 

If you want to I would be willing to meet with you and discuss the differences between recruiting latino youth and working with their parents. There are some strong contrasts that need to be understood in order to be successful.