There have been several stories posted about the efforts of the Boy Scouts of America to boost its declining membership by trying to recruit the growing Hispanic youth community. This is the first I have read that also speaks about the issue of illegal immigration.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-l ... 7282.story

chicagotribune.com

Boy Scouts make big push to get Latinos to join

Organization tries to leap hurdles to double its ranks of Hispanic Boy Scouts

By Antonio Olivo
Tribune reporter
June 5, 2009

The smells of roasting jalapeños and buttery pancakes swirled together in the Tinley Park forest preserve campsite as mothers chattering in Spanish prepared breakfast for the boys in Cub Scout Pack 3345.

The mostly Mexican-American children, wolfing down their meal in the southern Cook County woods, represented what the Boy Scouts of America see as their new face after striving for nearly 100 years to embody painter Norman Rockwell's idyllic vision of America.

Worried about dwindling membership, the organization has launched a pilot recruitment effort to double its ranks of Latinos to 200,000 before its centennial in February. Chicago is among six test sites for even more ambitious plans to tap into the nation's fastest-growing demographic.

So far, however, the $1 million effort has faced language barriers, lax participation and other obstacles among the mostly immigrant parents viewed as crucial to the effort, illustrating broader concerns over that population's lack of integration into American society.

In a stark example of its efforts to overcome such hurdles, the strait-laced group has turned a blind eye to questions of illegal Immigration. The organization's leaders hope that will reassure some undocumented parents whose worries of detection contributed to several failed recruitment efforts since the 1980s.

"You can feel, I would say, awkwardness on both sides," said Roberto Colón, a former Eagle Scout in Puerto Rico who coordinates Latino recruitment in Chicago. Directors hope to add 2,000 families in the region as part of the national effort to reverse a membership decline from 4.8 million boys in the 1970s to 3 million today.

"You have to build a lot of trust, and that's the hardest thing for the Anglo society to understand," Colón said. "They say, 'Go in there, talk to them for 10 minutes and let's go.' It doesn't work that way. ... It takes time."

Yet time is a rare commodity for many working-class immigrants. Their long hours in low-wage industries contribute to historically low rates of English proficiency and low participation in civic groups such as the Scouts, studies have shown.

Nearly three of every four of the state's 725,000 Mexican immigrants work such low-skilled jobs, according to a May report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Through Spanish-language marketing and other efforts, the Scouts try to get around such hard realities. For example, parents without child care are urged to bring the whole family to meetings and camp outs, and low-income families are offered financial aid for uniforms and camping trips.

To avoid questions about Immigration status, Colón and other recruiters emphasize that a Social Security number or other government ID isn't required when they carry out mandatory screening of volunteers that is designed to protect children from potential predators. Neither do they ask the Scouts about their Immigration papers.

Of the 135,000 Mexican immigrants who arrived in Illinois from 2000 to 2006, roughly 51 percent are believed to be in the U.S. illegally, according to the Council on Global Affairs report. Many of them have elementary school-age children.

Unfamiliar with the Scouts and put off by what can appear to be a paramilitary aura, many immigrants have misperceived the group as an extension of U.S. law enforcement, recruiters say.

"We're not a government agency and we're not in the Immigration business," though criminal background checks are performed for every parent, said Marcos Nava, a national Scout director overseeing the Hispanic Initiative.

"Anyone who has a child in the program or who wants to participate in the program may do so," he said. "When there is a lack of a Social Security number ... what we do ask is that [a local Scouts director] write a letter" vouching for that parent, he said.

Nava acknowledged that the approach has ruffled "one or two" feathers within the organization, but said Scout leaders view it as necessary to the group's survival.

In Chicago, the welcoming approach has resonated with immigrant parents.

At a recent Cub Scout meeting in Brighton Park, a handful of parents watched their uniformed children, ages 7 to 10, stand in formation to salute the American flag before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and an oath of loyalty to the pack. The 13 children then dove into merit projects.

Carmen Castillo, 29, voiced her approval in Spanish. But the Ecuadorean immigrant laughingly recalled how a neighbor asked whether her 8-year-old son had joined "the little soldiers."

She and the other parents credit the regimented program for keeping their children away from gang violence rattling their Southwest Side neighborhood. They also praised the group's time-honored emphasis on achievement, selflessness and being prepared.

But while those virtues may entice parents to join, not enough stick around, said Lillian Robles, a parent leader in Brighton Park. Recently, three families dropped out, she said.

"Some parents think it's too much work," Robles said.

John Jones, who heads the Chicago Area Council of the Scouts, said there has been a lack of bilingual staff able to build lasting connections with those families. The council recently hired Colón and three other bilingual recruiters to talk up the Scouts.

"Who wants a wolf patch?" one recruiter, Miguel Coronado, asked a class of giggly kindergartners at Walsh Elementary School in Pilsen. After showing the children photos of Scouts playing with bows and arrows or building bonfires, the recruiters handed out fliers for a kite festival designed to lure their parents.

"Don't forget to tell Mama and Papa!" Colón chimed in.

Although Walsh Principal Khrish Mohip is a former Eagle Scout and actively pushes the program, only nine parents showed up that weekend. But after a pep talk about the value of teaching their children how to think for themselves, they all filled out applications.

"What's really going to make us grow in the Hispanic community is if we start with small groups that do it the way it's been done for 100 years," Nava said. "It will be embedded in our hearts."

Hilda Vazquez, 34, a parent leader in Cicero, has seen trickles of that.

In the past, she recalled, Spanish-speaking parents who still feel like outsiders were turned off by the idea of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before weekly meetings, asking, "Do we have to? We know our kids have to."

Now, Vazquez said, the parents stand quietly with their hands over their hearts as the children say the pledge in English.

"They don't know the words, but they respect it," she said. "That was a real breakthrough."

aolivo@tribune