FOR PARENTS / GUARDIANS
"A Scout is Friendly"
- Norman Rockwell
For over 100 years, Scouting programs have instilled in youth the values found in the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Today, these values are just as relevant in helping youth grow to their full potential as they were in 1910. Scouting helps youth develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills that influence their adult lives.
The Boy Scouts of America provides youth with programs and activities that allow them to
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Try new things.
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Provide service to others.
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Reinforce ethical standards
Scouting provides youth with a sense that they are important as individuals. It is communicated to them that those in the Scouting family care about what happens to them, regardless of whether a game is won or lost.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Scouting promotes activities that lead to personal responsibility and high self-esteem. As a result, when hard decisions have to be made, peer pressure can be resisted and the right choices can be made.
Your Role
You may be wondering about what your role is in Boy Scouting. Well, your first and most important role is to simply do what you’ve been doing: Help your son succeed! Be supportive. You’re here because you see value in the Scouting program. There will always be times when your son doesn’t want to go to the weekly meeting, or seems to be losing interest in advancement and doing his best in Scouting. That’s when he needs a parent’s encouragement.
Volunteer Leadership
Beyond that, you need to know that Scouting is a worldwide movement that operates primarily through volunteer leadership. In fact, without volunteers, there would simply be no Scouting any where! Naturally, parents are a primary source of leaders in the Scouting program. Parents can support their son’s Scout troop in two different ways: as a uniformed member of his troop’s adult volunteer corps, or as a troop committee member.
Unit volunteers are themselves an example of Scouting’s principle of service to others. They volunteer not only to serve Scouting, but also to serve their son and his friends, and to have the chance to be a positive influence on the youth of the community. In your troop, the Scoutmaster, assistant Scoutmaster(s), committee chairperson, troop committee members, and chartered organization representative all work with the troop's parents to provide a good environment and program for the Scouts they serve.