SCOUTS
The Guides and Scouts of Finland have been experiencing a problem of newly joined adult members leaving the organization shortly after. Our brief was to explore the reasons why scout careers of new adults tend to be short, and to find methods that would help local scout troops to truly involve and engage new adults in their activities. The project was done as a collaboration with Palmu, a service design community of Solita.
The project involved stakeholders from The Guides and Scouts of Finland, regional organisations and local troops. We first started by brainstorming methods, which would help the involvement and engagement of new adults in scouts, and be feasible for troops to implement. These hypotheses were then introduced to interviewees to get feedback from.
The interviews clarified the understanding that it is difficult to join the local scout troops as an adult. Most members of the troop have joined as kids, and grown to be integral parts of the group. As an adult, it can be difficult to find one’s role without support amid younger actives, who already have longer experience from scouts. Also adults need a progressive path for recognising their skills, finding their role and growing to be a part of the group.
Based on the feedback, we were able to pick along methods, which were felt most important and effective, for further piloting. The pilot started in fall 2018 and involved three scout troops. Final results of the pilot led into establishment of guide for involving adults in scouts targeted especially for the scout troops. For adults themselves, a passport like flyer was introduced, to be handed out to potential recruits for example on events, filled with contact information and short into of what they could do in the scouts.
Generally, the project rose a great deal of interest in the scouting community. You can read more about the project from Partiomedia (in finnish).