Impact of Home Scouting Report by World Organization of the Scout Movement

STRATEGY

IMPACT OF HOME SCOUTING REPORT © WSB Inc. / Victor Ortega

© World Scout Bureau Inc. STRATEGY March 2020 World Scout Bureau Europe Support Centre Geneva, Switzerland Rue Henri-Christiné 5 CH-1211 Geneva 4 Switzerland Tel: +41 22 705 1100 Fax: +41 22 705 1109 europe@scout.org scout.org Reproduction is authorised to National Scout Organizations and Associations which are members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Credit for the source must be given. Strategic Priorities Area of Operation. Impact of Scouting team: Allan Simpson Ana Kostovska Venusia Vinciguerra

IMPACT OF HOME SCOUTING REPORT

European Scout Region. Strategic Priorities Area of Operation. Impact of Scouting Team

CONTENT INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY & APPROACH

MAIN FINDINGS

YOUNG PEOPLE

ADULTS IN SCOUTING

PARENTS 24 CONCLUSION 27

Introduction 2020 has been a challenging year for the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) Member Organisations (MOs) in numerous ways. For the Europe region, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has forced MOs to adapt how they deliver scouting based on ever-evolving restrictions implemented by national governments to control the spread of coronavirus. Early on in the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of MOs across the WOSM Europe Region had moved to some form of a “home scouting” model, where scouting activities were delivered as remote activities using online platforms like Zoom. Home activities were sent to young people by email or other means to complete in their own time, or a myriad of other approaches that didn’t include traditional meetings at a central location on a weekly basis were implemented. This was a profound change in how local groups and MOs operated, with leaders needing to adapt their skills to different tools. They had to quickly develop alternative activities in order to keep Scouting active and support young members during lockdowns or other restrictions. As a Strategic Priority in the Regional Scout Plan, understanding the Impact of Scouting and its educational methods is a complex and multi-faceted problem. A volunteer team within the region is continuing to develop upon the work from the world level, across the region and in individual MOs.

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Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, this team promptly developed a plan to capture and understand some of the impact of the new scouting environment on members. This research aimed to understand: • what, if any, impact home scouting had on young people’s ability to cope during the Covid-19 pandemic • what, if any, impact home scouting had on adults involved • how well the scouting method can be adapted to home delivery • what types of activities, if any, had the most positive impact on young people during the Covid-19 pandemic

Data for the research was collected near the end of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, during June 2020. Since then, many countries have continued to change restrictions based on the increasing or decreasing prevalence of the virus and MOs continue to adapt their provision to be delivered within the constraints of what is possible. This report outlines the results of the research completed during 2020 on this subject and provides a brief analysis of regional results. Research was conducted using an online survey advertised to members from across the region, having been translated into 28 different languages. Over 3000 responses were received, providing the biggest response to a piece of research by the WOSM European Region in recent history. Results of the survey showed that overall participants and organisers of home scouting activities found them to be positive, particularly valuing the social and community aspects. Parents of young people who engaged in home scouting activities ranked even higher the positive effect they had on the mood of the young people involved.

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Methodology & Approach When designing the research approach for this investigation, a primary driver was to maximise the number of people completing the research and to encourage this it was deemed that a short survey would produce the highest response rate. As a result of this, an approach was designed that ensured the survey could be completed in just two or three minutes, answering no more than 20 questions through any specific route on the survey. This approach was taken so as to produce generalised data that provides indications for trends across the region. Further research would be required to understand country to country variations that came out of the research, by collecting data via other qualitative methods in the coming months. The survey was developed to be targeted at young people, parents and adults in scouting from across the region. It was translated into 28 languages, shown in Figure 1, to maximise accessibility. After selecting the relevant language, participants would be routed through the survey based on their age grouping; under 18 year olds, adults in scouting or parents of scouts. Figures 2, 3 and 4 outline the routes that could be taken through the survey. Unless indicated otherwise, questions on the survey asked participants to rate various statements on a five point scale of “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”, with a “Not applicable” option available where relevant.

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Figure 1 - Translations of the survey available to users

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Figure 2 - Survey questions as asked to participants reporting as under 18

I had fun doing Home Scouting activities

I learned something new through Home Scouting

What is your age?

What is your country of residence?

Home Scouting made me feel part of a community or feel less lonely

YES

What is your gender?

Home Scouting helped me to maintain social contacts

Have you participated in Home Scouting activities during the Covid-19?

Home Scouting made me cope with the situation or feel more positive

Home Scouting made me feel useful

Were you offered any Home Scouting activiies during Covid-19? YES

You didn’t participate because...

YES

Home Scouting inspired me to help others in the future

I would recommend Home Scoutingto others

Would you have participated if offered?

Did you or your group directly and actively support the local community during Covid-19?

You wouldn’t because…

YES

That made me feel proud of being part of the scout community

YES

I participated in the JOTI special edition

I didn’t because...

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Figure 3 - Survey questions as asked to participants reporting as adults in scouting

Do you think your yoing people benefited from Home Scouting?

I had fun doing Home Scouting activities

I learned something new through Home Scouting

What is your age?

I had fun doing Home Scouting activities

YES

What is your country of residence?

Home Scouting made me feel part of a community or feel less lonely

YES

Home Scouting helped me to maintain social contacts

I learned something new through Home Scouting

What is your gender?

Home Scouting made me feel part of a community or feel less lonely

Have you organisied Home Scouting activities during Covid-19? Home Scouting made me cope with the situation or feel more positive

Home Scouting helped me to maintain social contacts

Why?

Home Scouting made me cope with the situation or feel more positive

Home Scouting made me feel useful Have you participated in Home Scouting activities during the Covid-19? Home Scouting inspired me to help others in the future

Home Scouting made me feel useful NO

Were you offered any Home Scouting activiies during Covid-19?

I would recommend Home Scouting to others

Home Scouting inspired me to help others in the future

YES NO

Did you or your group directly and actively support the local community during Covid-19?

You didn’t participate because...

Would you have participated if offered? That made me feel proud of being part of the scout community

I would recommend Home Scouting to others

YES

Did you or your group directly and actively support the local community during Covid-19?

NO YES NO

YES

You wouldn’t because…

That made me feel proud of being part of the scout community

Home Scouting inspired me to help others in the future

I participated in the JOTI special edition

YES

Home Scouting inspired me to help others in the future

I participated in the JOTI special edition

I didn’t because...

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Figure 4 - Survey questions as asked to participants reporting as parents of scouts

Do you think your yoing people benefited from Home Scouting?

Home Scouting made me feel part of a community or feel less lonely

Home Scouting made me cope with the situation or feel more positive

What is your age?

What is your country of residence?

YES

What is your gender? Home Scouting inspired my child to help others

Have you participated in Home Scouting activities during the Covid-19? Home Scouting helped my child feel useful NO

Were they offered any Home Scouting activiies during Covid-19?

My child had fun doing Home Scouting activities

YES NO

They didn’t participate because...

My child learned something new through Home Scouting

Would they have participated if offered?

YES

I would recommend Home Scouting to other parents NO

They wouldn’t participate because…

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The surveys were made available via the ScoutHub platform (https://homescouting. scouthub.org/) over a period of four weeks, launching in June 2020. This was timed to coincide with the point where the majority of NSOs/NSAs across Europe were returning to some form of in person scouting after the first wave of Covid-19 lockdowns across the region. It was planned that the results of the survey would be combined with in depth research and analysis with NSOs. Those were to be identified through the survey process as having particularly successful approaches to Home Scouting. At the time of writing, this extended analysis has not yet been finished. Further research and

analysis could be conducted in 2021 to understand how member organisations approaches have evolved throughout the pandemic. As a result of this planned approach, the questions asked in the survey were specifically written to be generalised and provide indicative perspectives on the quality of Home Scouting. Identifying what Home Scouting consisted of for participants was not a priority of the survey. For the purposes of assessment, participants were provided with the following summary of Home Scouting at the beginning of the survey:

“Under the first months of the Coronavirus emergency we all experienced major changes in our lives, as persons and as scouts. Most NSOs/NSAs had to interrupt or reduce activities, and maybe faced a number of important challenges. Many of you responded with alternative ways to offer scouting to members (Home Scouting), in order to keep in touch with your members and continue the work you started together. We all know that many young people face different challenges in this period, and this is the main reason why we find it useful to assess the Impact of Home Scouting under the first months of 2020 pandemic.”

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Main findings Response Profile Over 3000 people participated in the research, noted as the highest absolute response rate of any survey in the recent history of the WOSM European Region. The spread and density of responses from the 31 countries that a response was recorded from are shown in Figure 5. Of these respondents, the majority were adults in scouting, which is somewhat expected considering the limited time period that the survey was available and the speed with which different member organisations can advertise it effectively to their young members. A learning point and recommendation for future surveys seeking the input of young people, is to send information to the MO’s ahead of the survey, to give them the chance to prepare communication to their young members in the most effective way. Figure 6 provides a breakdown of the age groups of the respondents.

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Figure 5

SWEDEN

FINLAND NORWAY

ESTONIA

DENMARK UNITED KINGDOM

LA IRELAND

LITHUANIA

NETHERLANDS

BELGIUM

POLAND

GERMANY

CZECH REP

LUXEMBOURG MB

SLOVAKIA VA

AUSTRIA SWITZERLAND

FRANCE

HUNGARY

SLOVENIA

MONACO

SAN MA MARINO

BOSNIA OSN SERBIA HERZEGOVINA

BULGARIA

ITALY

SPAIN PORTUGAL

GREECE MALTA

Figure 5 - Relative density of responses from countries across the region to the survey

CYPRUS

Figure 6 54 (2%)

602 (19%)

1675 (55%)

more than 18 years old 11 to 17 years old I am a parent 10 or less years old

727 (24%)

Figure 6 - Split of respondents based on declared age group at the beginning of the survey

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Figure 7 1800

Prefer not to answer

1600

Other Male

1400

Female

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

18 years old and above

11 to 17 years old

I am a parent

10 years old or younger

Figure 7 - Breakdown of reported gender from respondents by age group

What is perhaps most interesting in the response profile, is the proportion of young people who responded to the survey who are female. Given that the WOSM Europe Region is made up of majority males (due to a mix of co-education, single gender and SAGNO member organisations), it would be reasonable to expect a majority male response set. Whilst the exact proportion of this is not known, it perhaps indicates an overall lower rate of engagement from young males across the region. Further investigation is required to ascertain whether this corroborates with a lack of desire from boys to join in Home Scouting activities, or if there are other reasons behind it.

Malta, Czech Republic and Italy had the highest calculated conversion rates with respect to survey respondents. Conversion rates were calculated based on the total membership of the member organisation as reported to the ESR through its annual census. No corrections were applied for parent respondents and so that are included in the percentage conversion rate, thus the rate should only be used for comparative purposes. Figure 8 provides more detail on the top countries with respect to proportional respondents. It also reflects the countries with the highest absolute response rates.

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COUNTRIES WITH BEST CONVERSION RATE *COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 100 PARTICIPANTS MALTA 12.63% 389 CONVERSION RATE

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

CZECHIA 1.82% 1089 CONVERSION RATE

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

ITALY 0.85% 889 CONVERSION RATE

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

BELGIUM 0.23% 252 CONVERSION RATE

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

GERMANY 0.12% 150 CONVERSION RATE

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

Figure 8 - Top responding countries ranked by calculated conversion rate

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Young People The majority of responses from young people to the survey, unsurprisingly, indicated they had been offered Home Scouting activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Such a response would be expected and without a baseline for similar situations, it is not possible to make any assertions on the level of availability of Home Scouting activities from groups throughout the pandemic. What is a useful analysis to make in the first two questions of the survey is the low rate of young people that were offered Home Scouting activities that didn’t take it up. This provides the first indication of the value and importance of Home Scouting initiatives to young people throughout the pandemic, and perhaps highlights a missed opportunity to offer Home Scouting options to those who had no access to such activities.

Figure 9

187 (24%)

Yes No

594 (76%)

Figure 9 - Rate of participation in home scouting activities by young people

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Figure 10 2 (1%)

594 (76%)

136 (73%)

Yes No Maybe

Figure 10 - Rate of which participants who did not take part in home scouting activities were offered home scouting activities

Three key questions are presented from the survey of young people. “Home Scouting made me feel more positive”, “I learned something new through Home Scouting” and “Home Scouting made me feel less lonely”. Of these, the most positive response from young people was on how Home Scouting has made them feel less lonely, with over 50% either agreeing or strongly agreeing. This is corroborated by a similar result for the question “Home Scouting made me feel part of a community”. Perhaps the question that received the most broadly neutral response was the question “I learned something new through Home Scouting”. The majority of respondents gave an answer within the central range of options. Given the novel nature of Home Scouting, this is perhaps not surprising as there was a range of different approaches. Instead the results back up the notion that the more important aspects of Home Scouting are providing connection between young people, focusing on the emotional support through tough events rather than specific learning. Further analysis with relevant focus groups on the range of different activities in the top responding countries around that question of “I learned something new through Home Scouting”, may reveal useful learning points for the future educational methods within the Movement.

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Figure 11 32 (5%)

146 (25%)

91 (15%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree 136 (23%)

Strongly agree

189 (32%)

Figure 11 - Response of young people to the question “Home Scouting made me feel more positive”

Figure 12 39 (7%)

116 (20%)

103 (17%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree 178 (30%) 158 (27%)

Figure 12 - Response of young people to the question “I learned something new through Home Scouting”

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Figure 13 24 (4%)

72 (12%) 165 (28%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree 161 (27%)

Strongly agree

172 (29%)

Figure 13 - Response of young people to the question “Home Scouting made me feel less lonely”

Near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, an additional special edition Jamboree on the Internet was organised by WOSM to bring Scouts from around the globe together. 15% of respondents reported participating in this special edition.

Figure 14

124 (16%) 657 (84%)

Yes No

Figure 14 - Rate of respondents who also participated in the JOTI special edition

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Finally, when looking at those respondents who weren’t able to participate in Home Scouting, around 50% indicated they would probably have participated if it was offered. This is a useful demonstration of the value that individuals attach to being able to continue scouting during times of disruption.

Figure 15 20 (10%)

59 (31%)

13 (7%)

NA Strongly disagree 24 (13%)

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

32 (17%)

43 (22%)

Figure 15 - Response of young people when asked if they’d have participated in Home Scouting activities if offered

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Adults in Scouting By far the largest group of people to respond to the survey were adults in scouting. This includes both leaders and also rover scouts from across the region (all age 18+), hence the more complex question route within this analysis that allowed for questions on organising Home Scouting activities or participating in them. Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents had organised activities during the Covid-19 lockdowns, perhaps reflecting the more engaged nature of those leaders across the region, increasing their likelihood to respond. A significant positive is that over 50% of the respondents in this category reported supporting their local community during the pandemic. This backs up some of the media reports from across the region during the pandemic that showed scouts providing assistance such as taking food to vulnerable citizens, making and distributing personal protective equipment and plenty more.

Figure 16

261 (16%) 1414 (84%)

Yes No

Figure 16 - Split of adult respondents based who organised home scouting activities during the pandemic

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Figure 17

897 (54%)

778 (46%)

Yes No

Figure 17 - Split of respondents who supported their local community in the pandemic

Looking at the key measures of the survey to come out, what is interesting is the split view on how impactful Home Scouting was to others from those planning and delivering it. 45% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement “Home Scouting inspired me to help others”.

Figure 18 91 (7%)

321 (22%)

206 (14%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree 375 (26%) 451 (31%)

Figure 18 - Response of adults to the question “Home Scouting inspired me to help others”

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Parents One of the most revealing groups to have responded to the Home Scouting survey was parents of scouts. They were overwhelmingly more supportive of the value of Home Scouting activities than either young people or adults in scouting. This perhaps reflects the ability for parents to notice the impact of activities on their children that their children don’t quite recognise in themselves at that point in time. Strongest of all was agreement with the statement “Home Scouting helped my child feel part of a community or feel less lonely” with around 75% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing. A similar number agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that their child had fun doing Home Scouting activities and over 50% thought their child learned something new. Given the vital role parents play in the enrolment of their children in Scouting, this is a great demonstration of the value that parents attributed to Scouting during times of hardship.

Figure 19

21 (4%) 42 (7%)

85 (15%)

234 (42%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

176 (32%)

Figure 19 - Response of parents to the question “Home Scouting helped my child feel part of a community or feel less lonely”

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Figure 20 34 (6%)

74 (13%) 164 (29%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree 138 (25%)

Strongly agree

148 (27%)

Figure 20 - Response of parents to the question “Home Scouting made my child feel useful”

Figure 21 21 (4%) 44 (8%)

253 (45%) 82 (15%)

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

158 (28%)

Figure 21 - Response of parents to the question “My child had fun doing Home Scouting activities”

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Figure 22 29 (5%)

56 (10%)

201 (36%)

Strongly disagree Disagree

94 (17%)

Neutral Agree Strongly agree

177 (32%)

Figure 22 - Response of parents to the question “My child learned something new through Home Scouting”

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Conclusion Since the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, Scouting alongside many other organisations has had to adapt on an ongoing basis. Across the WOSM Europe Region most member organisations adapted to provide some form of scouting activities. Given the inherently social and active nature of scouting, this is a demonstration of remarkable adaptability and resilience in its own right. The research conducted by the Impact of Scouting team demonstrated that home scouting activities were valued by participants and that parents of those participating especially recognised the value of these activities. Based on this, it is recommended that MOs continue to share knowledge and experience on the development and delivery of home scouting activities, to help maintain the resilience to changing circumstances that has been built up. At the time of writing, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been impacting lives across the region for over a year. This survey was shared and results collected just a few months into this period and since then MOs have continued to adapt and evolve. What is clear, is that this elongated imposition of varying restrictions would be expected to cause a variation in the survey results were it to be repeated now. It should be remembered that this therefore presents only a snapshot of people’s views. A learning point from the issuing of this survey was the positive impact that providing multiple translations of a survey can have on responses, reducing the barrier to completion for many of the survey respondents. When developing a survey in multiple languages though, care should be taken about the formatting of the answers to ensure a high acceptance rate of survey responses. In the analysis of these results, special characters from the cyrillic alphabet couldn’t be processed by the analysis software, reducing the response acceptance rate. The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on people and organisations will continue to become clear in the coming months and are set to be significant and wide-ranging. What is clear from the results of this research though is that when faced with changing circumstances, Scouting continues to adapt and evolve to provide valuable development and connection for young people.

Acknowledgements The WOSM European Region Impact of Scouting team would like to thank the volunteers who helped to translate this survey, the MOs who promoted it to their members, those who helped analyse the results, and all who took the time to respond. Without this collective support, the development and issuing of the research in such a short timeframe would not have been possible. Most importantly, the team would like to thank all of the volunteer leaders from across the region who have adapted their programmes to deliver scouting in a completely new way this year. Thank you for the hard work in keeping the Scouting spirit alive.

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Impact of Home Scouting Report

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INTRODUCTION