27^th April 2009: Record numbers of girls in Surrey are joining the UK Scout Movement according to statistics for the last year released today.

 

A surge of over 200 new girl Scouts, an increase of 23% on last year, means that over the past 12 months almost as many girls as boys in Surrey have signed up to the adventure based challenges of Scouting.

 

Scouting for girls?Yes! Contrary to popular belief, Scouting is not just for boys. In the UK, girls have been part of the adventure since 1976 and this year female membership in Surrey stands at 1,303. This means that girls now account for over 11% of all youth members of the Scout Movement in the region. Female leadership is also booming, with women now making up around 40% of all adult volunteers in the Surrey region.

 

But it’s not only female membership on the increase - the entire Movement, from 6 to 25 year olds, is expanding for the fourth year running. Total membership of the Movement across the UK stands at nearly 500,000, of which over 12,000 are based in Surrey. This year we’re seeing the largest number of Members in the UK for seven years. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth movement in the country.

 

With adventure at its core, Scouting helps young people achieve their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. Over 200 activities, including adventure glider flights, water skiing, rock climbing and water zorbing, are offered by Scouting around the UK, so it’s no surprise that more and more young people are joining the Movement.

 

However, despite this impressive growth, demand still far outstrips supply and waiting lists remain at an all-time high due to the lack of adult volunteers.

 

Last year there were more than 30,000 young people aged between 6 and 25 waiting to join Groups across the UK and almost 2,300 of them were based in Surrey. Despite The Scout Association managing to open up almost 13,000 places nationwide thanks to 2,600 new adult volunteers across the UK offering their support (the highest amount of new adult recruits since 1996), this year’s national waiting list has actually risen to more than 33,000 and the region’s wating list is still at the 2,300 mark. This means that almost 15,000 additional young people nationwide have registered their interest in joining the Movement since 31 January 2008.

 

But this figure is not as difficult to overcome as it may seem. For every new adult that volunteers five more young people will have the chance to participate in Scouting. So we only need 6,600 adults, which equates to just 0.01% of the UK’s adult population[1], signing up to completely wipe out our current waiting list.

 

James, an Explorer Scout from Camberley said: “Scouting is so much fun and I love being part of it. I joined because I wanted to try new things and make new friends, and I’ve now been involved for 7 years. There are quite a few girls in my unit and we all think that scouting is a great way to develop a range of skills and participate in some amazing activities and events - we’d definitely recommend it to other people: girls and boys!”

 

Chief Scout Peter Duncan said “Adults who volunteer get just as much out of Scouting as young members. Not only is it really rewarding to see young people having fun and getting to try out new things, but adult volunteers get to participate in these activities as well and they are being active members of their community. Also, volunteers aren’t just giving something back to society, they are getting the opportunity to develop transferrable skills such as leadership and motivational skills. If you look at it this way volunteering is much, much more than a hobby or an extra-curricular activity and we can see from current data that even more adults are adopting this view – with our biggest growth in adult membership for twenty years.

 

He added: “However, despite this growth we always need more volunteers – our waiting lists are still stuck well over the 30,000 mark and we want to make sure all young people that want to take part in Scouting can do so. I’d encourage anyone who is able to volunteer to do it – it’s fantastic experience.”

 

Julie, a Leader from Dorking, said: “I thoroughly enjoy being a Scout Leader. I got started because I wanted to get involved in the community in order to meet new people. I don’t think there is a ‘typical’ Leader, everyone has their own way of doing things, but I think all Leaders can learn a lot. I really value the skills I’ve picked up while I’ve been doing this - skills that I’ve then been able to use at work, which have proved very important for me. It’s also tremendously rewarding to see how much young people enjoy Scouting and how much they are actually learning each week.”