Dundee Scouts are having their first major expansion in 35 years.
Three groups, the 5th Downfield, 7th Stobswell and 20th Coldside Scouts, will be joining together to create a new youth group – the Squirrel Drey.
Grant Stephen, Dundee Scouts district commissioner, said: “It’s the first time they’ve introduced it in Scotland.
“But after a successful pilot in England and Ireland, they’re extending it to include Scotland.
“This one will see four and five-year-old’s able to join Scouts. Previously, kids had to be five and three quarters to join.”
The group will run every Friday night, with occasional Saturday groups, depending on the activities.
“The big thing in Scouting is skills for life,” Grant said.
“Joining the Squirrels encourages young people to start meeting others their own age.
“A lot of it is about letting them understand the community and what they can do to help.”
Learning new skills
Squirrels will be involved in various activities, which will closely follow the early years development programme.
Grant said: “It’s new so it will be a bit of a learning curve.
“They will get the old tying knots, arts and crafts, scavenger hunts and baking, all age appropriate obviously.
“But it’s broadly broken into three areas of craft, adventure and skills.
“And of course they will also earn badges for their work – kids respond better if they’re working towards something like earning badges. It wouldn’t really be Scouts without them.”
To start with, there will just be one Squirrel Drey, with 24 children, to make sure things run smoothly.
Grant added: “The three groups have come together as we didn’t have the facility to offer three different groups, as you’d have to then get leaders and we didn’t want to touch any leaders who were currently taking a group.
“It’s hard enough to get leaders. So we decided that three groups would work together, using the 5th Downfield premises in the hope that as it expands, it will then form into three different Squirrel Dreys.”
Looking for volunteers
Currently, spots have only been offered to siblings of those in Scouting, due to a shortage of volunteers.
“We have issues across the district, trouble with getting volunteers.
“We’re looking to get some more in. A lot of it is to do with Covid, because a lot of groups went online.
“There wasn’t the same interaction and some people drifted away.
“A lot of our younger leaders are university students and of course that was all over the place in the last year.
“So we’ve got two groups that are really struggling and need to get people in there otherwise they’re not going to be viable to run and that’s the last thing we ever need – because it’s the kids who lose out ultimately.”
If you’d like to volunteer with Dundee Scouts, you can register your interest here.