We are an established scout group working in North Belfast.
Our mission is to enable and empower young people to realise their full potential, through our core values based on the Scout Promise and Law, fostering active citizenship, and helping create a better community, society, and world. We have a current membership of approximately 70 children ranging across four sections. We have Beavers aged between 6-8 years, Cubs 9-11 years, Scouts 1115 years and Ventures 15-18 years. During 2022-23 we had 14 leaders who volunteered their time to provide these children with a fun and fulfilling experience of scouting.
All sections met weekly from September to June to develop their skills and attended a camp and day trips throughout the year. Working in small groups, our children learn from each other’s strengths, develop as a group, and work towards greater challenges and goals. Younger children learn to work in teams and share whilst older children are encouraged to reflect on their own personal growth and understand the positive impact they can have on the wider community.
In the past year, the group has attended a unit camp in Newcastle run by YMCA. This was made possible due to grant funding. All sections attended and the children greatly benefitted from the teambuilding activities on offer. From September to June, our children engaged in many outdoor activities, encouraging them to discover the world around them. These ranged from hill walking to planting trees on Cavehill. The children were actively engaged in helping to design the programme they subsequently followed, learning new skills, and deciding what activities to take part in.
We have seen the unit expand in numbers slightly in the last year. We hope that we can strengthen these further in the coming year.
Siobhan Quinn (Unit Leader)