Youth Programme 2015 Network #ScoutIAR

During the days of June 11th to 14th the regional meeting for the Youth Programme 2015 network took place. In this meeting 21 persons took part as representatives for the 14 national scout organizations (NSO), in addition to the coordination core of the network, and the Interamerican region world scout bureau personnel. The NSO that took part were: Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curazao, El Salvador, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú y República Dominicana.

The Program for the meeting considered two types of sessions:
• Conjoined sessions with the participants for the meetings of the Adults in the scout movement network, institutional development and youth.
• Specific sessions of the Youth Programme network.

Joint sessions. The sessions took place during the afternoon of the 11th and the morning of the 12th. The discussed topics in these sessions were:

• 2023 vision.
• Youth Programme politic.
• Institutional Development Politic.
• Youth Participation politics.
• Adults in scouting politics.
• GSAT – Evaluation tool of global support towards a scout movement with quality.
• Better world.
• Communications.

Specific sessions. The topics discussed during the specific sessions of the network that took place in the 12th to 14th were:

Advances in the active evaluation process of the Youth Programme management. The evaluation tool for the Youth Programme management was presented, product of the work initiated by the network in the year of 2012. This tool was sent in May to all of the NSO of the region to acquire their evaluations before the month of October. The fact that the tool has been built with the participation of the NSOs is very important. It was agreed that between June and October 2015 the NSOs would carry out the evaluation using the updated tool and would be sent to the regional office.

Evaluation tool of the Youth Programme application in the scout group.
The proposal of the evaluation tool for the Youth Programme application in the scout group was presented. This tool is based on a proposal presented by an NSO in 2012. It was agreed that each NSO would check and modify the tool to their particular needs and the first evaluation process for the Youth Programme application in the scout group will take place before October 2016.

Establish the foundations for the elaboration of the evaluation tool of the impact Programme in youth and their communities. The active regional plan establishes the need to create and apply a tool that evaluated the impact of the Youth Programme in the youth themselves and in their communities. To fulfill this objective a work group was created for the development of the evaluation tool. Said group is formed by Amanda Flores Guevara (Nicaragua), Edgardo Laria (Argentina), Paula Fuentes Cabrera (México).

Evaluation of the Programme from the scout’s method perspective. The scout movement is a group of experiences; the objective is to provide Young adolescents and Youth a Programme that contributes to their development. This sets us apart from any other experience of a youngling in other groups, compared to the experience the scout movement offers is the educational method. The difference lies in how the Programme is implemented, meaning, through the scout method. Using a specific method that transforms each scout in their main character of their own development.

Operation of the “better world” initiative in the NSOs. Contributions were made and doubts were shared from all the different countries about how peace messengers work, world scouts and the worldwide Environment Program. In this topic the highlights were to understand the integration of these Programs in the Youth Programme area, and visualize that a link is required between the Environmental Network (RIMADP) and the Peace Development (MOP) to implement Programs. It was agreed to notify officially who will represent the RIMADP and who will represent the MOP which links should be validated by the associations.

Interamerican Symposium for Diversity and Inclusion in Scouting. The objective of the symposium is to establish the strategic lines and share experiences to create directives. The symposium will take place in Ciudad del Saber, Panamá. To support the development of the symposium a work group was formed composed by: Luiz Cesar de Simas Horn (Brasil), Jannett Berrocal Berrios (Perú), Yeycy Donastorg Cabral (República Dominicana), Gilberth Salazar (Costa Rica), Carlos González O'Neill (Panamá).

Bullying (A salvo de daños). Bullying is understood as any type of persistent abuse, intentional and aware, being this abuse physical, verbal or psychological between members of a group, disregarding genre or number of persons, towards one or more persons with less power from a counter part of person or persons with a higher power. All adults must take a protection of minors’ course. With the purpose of following up in this topic a group was formed composed by: Vitor Augusto Gay (Brasil) y Jesús Arenas (OSM-RI), with the compromise that other NSOs could propose someone else.

Application experiences of the Programme in the practices of NSOs. Some NSOs shared their recent experiences in the application of the Youth Programme. The NSOs that shared their experiences were: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and México.

Advancements in the regional plan and definition of actions for next year. The active regional plan establishes as a general objective for the Youth Programme: Accomplish that the NSOs in the Interamerican scout region implement a consistent Youth Programme with the established directives by the Interamerican region’s Youth Programme politics. During the meeting the advancement in the following topics was analyzed: Current state of NSOs regarding their national politics of Youth Programme; Youth Programme management evaluation; Establish a collaboration strategy for all NSOs of the region that have the educational material required to apply for a Youth Programme aligned with the politic.

Ideas for the regional plan 2017-2019. The proposed topics for the next regional plan are: Creation of educational material; Evaluation; Strengthen global initiatives; Strengthen the youth participation in the Programme; renovate the proposal for the Regional Programme.

General comments. From all the general comments of the participants we can highlight:
• This meeting has been more interesting than other meetings
• There’s good synergy
• All participants are involved as a team towards achieving a single goal
• About the conjoined work with other networks: It was excellent to have presented all the politics and not just one in specific.
• About the work with the Youth Programme network: all the work has been in continuity, very active and the work has been with rhythm.
• Topics to improve: have no fear to express an opinion or take part in interventions

Meeting evaluation. The average evaluation the participants give to the meeting is 86.6% satisfactory.