Thread: Scouts Reaching out to Hispanics

This is a really hot topic in South Florida. The majority of comments posted were against them having their own troop but had no problems with them being with the rest of the boy or girl scouts. They feel that we should be teaching the scouts to get along with all ethnic groups, races and religions. This article can no longer be accessed from the comments as the majority of posters were against the move.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 1759.story

Scouts reaching out to Hispanics to grow troops
Scouting is changing to keep up with a changing population. The Boy Scouts have launched a $1 million pilot program to boost Hispanic membership; the Girl Scouts are selling dulce de leche cookies.
By Alexia Campbell | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 6, 2009
LAKE CLARKE SHORES - The Boy Scouts turned Richard Hernandez from a gang leader into a troop leader. Now, the tattooed 28-year-old Eagle Scout wants to make sure Hispanic youths don't make the same mistakes he did.

Hernandez is helping create the first all-Latino Boy Scout troop in Palm Beach County. He's the kind of guy the Boy Scouts are looking for to keep the 99-year-old Scouting tradition alive. The country's population is changing, and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts feel they need to change too if they want to keep bringing in new members. They're reaching out to the Hispanic community to grow along with the booming minority population.

"We're changing with the times," said Marcos Nava, national director of Hispanic initiatives for the Boy Scouts of America. "We mostly serve white, middle-class families and we're not staying in par with the growth in the country."

The Boy Scouts of America launched a $1 million pilot program this year to boost Hispanic membership in six U.S. cities, including Orlando. It's the national council's latest effort to attract minority groups and the plan is to double Hispanic membership over the next year through bilingual outreach to parents and community leaders. Recent numbers show that Hispanic Boy Scouts make up about 3 percent of the nation's 3 million Scouts. By comparison, 14.7 percent of the national population is Hispanic, according to 2007 U.S. Census estimates.

Girl Scouts sell 1.4 million boxes of cookies in southeast Florida Partnering with community groups and churches is key, local Scouting officials say. At the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where Hernandez volunteers in Lake Clarke Shores, about 20 Hispanic boys play soccer and basketball after school every Wednesday. Most come from low-income immigrant families. They are also at risk of joining gangs, said Israel Calderon, who leads the church's group for young men.

It's a challenge to get all the kids excited about something so unfamiliar to their culture, said Calderon, who has signed up about 10 boys.

"I think they've heard about [Scouting], but I don't think most were ever exposed to it," he said. "It's a very American thing."

The traditional all-American image of the Girls Scouts in South Florida is also shifting. This year, Broward Girl Scout troops sold dulce de leche cookies outside supermarkets along with the usual Thin Mints and Samoas.

Broward troops have started to reflect the area's ethnic diversity, said Sonia Malter, who leads a Junior Girl Scout troop in Weston. Years ago, only one or two girls in her troop were Hispanic, now she has four. However, more still needs to be done, she said.

"It's no longer that one Anglo look; it's all looks. It's very exciting," said Malter, whose family is from Costa Rica and Puerto Rico.

In 2008, the Girls Scouts of Southeast Florida had nearly 16 percent Hispanic membership, not including adults. They just received a $102,500 grant from the national council to recruit more bilingual volunteers in Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports. The council plans to partner with local professional and church groups to find them. Getting bilingual adults involved in Scouting is essential to reach out to Spanish-speaking parents who might not understand what Scouting offers, said Lisa Johnson, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida.

Lorena Fazelnia, 41, watches her daughter outfit a stuffed pony during one of Malter's Junior Girl Scouts meetings. The Peruvian woman heard about the Girl Scouts during a presentation in her daughter's kindergarten class. Since then, the Girls Scouts have taught her 10-year-old daughter leadership and respect.

"She loves camping," Fazelnia said. "Before, she didn't even like sleepovers."

Alexia Campbell can be reached at apcampbell@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4513.

There were Latino Boy Scouts in my troop forty years ago.

They are like everyone else they see $$$ their are allot of special grants to be applied for regarding Latino’s. They started putting everything in Spanish and English and would recruit the illegal adult mother or father of the girl’s to help run troops in Spanish. They are required to do background checks on all adult volunteers, but when it came to the Illegal Latino population they as usual did not have to go by the same rules and were asked to just provide personal references, Girl Scout's did not want to scare away or discourage their volunteering. I did point out that we were asking for trouble and gave my reasons. What ever happen to emerging all? This was very frustrating for me as I thought about the safety of the girls and the huge amount of money spent on scholarships for this population, it ended up costing the Council a great deal of their own money as the grant‘s were not enough to cover the cost and the parents had no interest in the Cookie sale fundraiser’s that support troops.

exploradores de muchacho de América ??

Sounds like something different than what my son was part of.

Hernandez is helping create the first all-Latino Boy Scout troop in Palm Beach County.

Is that supposed to be something to be proud of? What would folks think if someone was boasting that a white boy had created an all-white troop? I'll tell you what they would think, they would think the boy and troop were nothing but a bunch of racist.

Like other traditional organizations in the U.S., Scouting faces declining membership. They see attracting young 'Hispanics' as necessary for their survival in a changing society.

Boy Scouts See Hispanics as Key to Boosting Ranks
By Associated Press Writer
Juliana Barbassa
Sat, Dec. 27 2008 01:04 PM EST

"SAN JOSE, Calif. – As it prepares to turn 100, the Boy Scouts of America is honing its survival skills for what might be its biggest test yet: drawing Hispanics into its declining — and mostly white — ranks.

"We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids, or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee."

Please see link below for complete article:
http://www.christianpost.com/Ministries ... index.html

Boy Scouts Reach Out to Latinos
Posted Aug 13, 07 12:03 PM CDT in US, Arts & Living

"(Newser) – With enrollment down almost 10% in the last 10 years, the Boy Scouts are reaching out to Latinos to fill their ranks. Handbooks, advertisements and bumper stickers are now available in Spanish, and the “be preparedâ€

What bothers me about this is that they want to use an American association for their cause. I was raised in an ethnic culture and we had a national association similar to boy and girl scouts but it also included religion . They even had camps but it was an ethnic thing that was funded by the ethnic community. It was almost unheard of by people outside of it.

I agree, Swatchick. I think every immigrant group which has come to the United States has formed "self-help" organizations within their own communities which also served to teach and preserve their own culture within that group. Many of them also served as informal "savings and loan associations" and to this day offer educational scholarships to the young people of that ethnic group. However, they didn't try to impose their culture upon the national culture in the way that Hispanics have.

Unfortunately, every business and cultural leader in our country seems to have "drunk the koolaid" that we are an old culture now dependant upon this magical group called "Hispanics" for both our present and our future!

The leadership of Boy Scouts seems convinced of this judging from the articles above.