Messengers of Peace

Introduction

Every Scout is a Messenger of Peace

Scouts do some amazing things, from simple community actions to large-scale projects such as preventing bullying in schools in the UK, helping street gangs in El Salvador to reduce violence, cleaning up a playground in Texas, and planting millions of trees all over Africa. Throughout its history, Scouting has inspired its millions of members to make a difference – applying their leadership to creating a better world. MoP is a World Scouting Initiative, which encourages Scouts to do community service and tell the story of their experience in order to inspire others to action. The Initiative has three components:

The Messengers of Peace Support Fund
The Messengers of Peace Guidelines
The Messengers of Peace Network

These elements are connected: The Network enables inspiration for project ideas, the programme provides guidance on how to implement project ideas, and the Support Fund gives the necessary means for National Scout Organisation’s projects.

The Messengers of Peace Support Fund

The Messengers of Peace Support Fund was established for financially supporting Scouts worldwide in implementing MoP projects that fall into one of the following categories:

Strengthening capacity (e.g. projects for renewing an NSO’s youth programme, or providing training for Adults in Scouting)
Inspiring Messengers of Peace (e.g. projects related to spreading the MoP network)

As well as special projects (including, but not limited to):

Support to youth in (post-)conflict zones (e.g. projects related to supporting refugees)
Disaster response (e.g. projects related to providing immediate support to disaster-affected communities, or projects related to preparing Scouts for disaster response)
Environment (e.g. projects related to reforestation, or cleaning up a river bed)
Peace and culture of dialogue (e.g. projects related to providing training to young people about peace and dialogue)

The Messengers of Peace Programme

Scouts are already doing great things in their community. Through good turns and community service, scouts are making the world a better place and spreading a culture of peace. The Messengers of Peace programme aims to highlight this work by supporting scouts' community service and encouraging Scouts to share their actions with others to help build a global network of service. If a scout does a service action and shares it with other, they can earn a Messengers of Peace badge. The main goal is to inspire Scouts to continue their community service or to join efforts with other scouts from around the globe. You can earn the Messengers of Peace badge in 4 steps:

Inspire: Explore and research about local problems, people in action and good practices.
Learn and decide: Identify your motivation and talents. Choose a field of action. Select useful knowledge, skills and ideas to apply.
Do: Plan your actions, execute, monitor, evaluate and report.
Share: Share what you did, your experiences, outcomes and learnt lessons.

The Messengers of Peace Network

During the 1st World Scout Conference organised in France in 1922, Baden-Powell shared his vision: “Scouts can gather in a Global Network of service”. The Messenger of Peace Network is a network of all scouts who wish to contribute with their individual or collective actions to spread a Culture of Peace through service actions for community development. The Network is kept active each time we invite someone to take part in our projects to help others. Every time you share a story, you contribute to inspire others with your example. One day, this will include all scouts in the world, who can actively help each other to create a better world. Some of the tools you can use to share your work? Scout.org, social media, instant messaging, radio, tv, newspapers... or simply talking about your work to your friends, community, and other scouts from around the world!

The Messengers of Peace Heroes

The Messengers of Peace Heroes Award was created to recognise exceptional Scouts, volunteers and professionals for their outstanding work in creating a better world. Each one of these extraordinary scouts that have taken action in one of these fields is considered a Messenger of Peace hero. Each year, heroes are highlighted with a prize and ceremony to inspire other scouts to pursue great community service. Discover the Messengers of Peace heroes.

Facebook Messengers of Peace Facebook Messagers de la Paix Facebook Mensajeros de la Paz رسل السلام الإقليم العربي

Featured links

Timeline

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Jul 01, 1941
Baden-Powell’s Last Message encourages scouts to do a “good deed to create Peace in the world”
Baden-Powell’s Last Message about doing a “good deed to create Peace in the world” was in 1941. Today’s tradition of tying a knot at the end of your Scout scarf signifies that you have completed your good deed of the day. For Baden-Powell, Peace and service have always been at the core of scouting. At the first experimental Scout camp with 4 patrols on Brownsea Island, Baden-Powell introduced the Scout Promise for the first time, with one of the elements being “I’ll do my best to help others”. In 1923, he wrote a report entitled "Education in Love in place of Fear" to emphasise the role scouts could play in creating a culture of peace. His idea was also reinforced during the 1st World Scout Conference organised in France, where Baden-Powell shared his vision: “Scouts can gather in a Global Network of service”.
BP's report "Education in Love in place of Fear"
May 01, 1981
WOSM was awarded the “UNESCO Prize for Peace Education”.
WOSM was awarded the “UNESCO Prize for Peace Education” for its work on creating a culture of peace through youth education.
List of UNESCO Peace education laureates
Jul 01, 1999

"Creating a better world" is highlighted in the mission of scouting, adopted at the 35th World Scout Conference

The Mission of Scouting was adopted at the 35th World Scout Conference in South Africa: “To contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society”.
Jul 12, 2001

Community Service is highlighted by World Scouting

The World Scout Committee (WSC) met in the framework of the Arab Region Scout Conference in Saudi Arabia. During the meeting, a generous offer from the Saudi Arabian government was presented to support Scouting efforts in community service. After much reflection and discussions within WOSM, the World Scout Committee embraced the donation of HM King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. WOSM, preparing for the Centenary of Scouting, formally incorporated a “Community Service” element as part of the Centenary activities to promote service actions to be undertaken by Scouts around the world.
Jul 13, 2002
Gifts for Peace is launched
The “Gifts for Peace” concept was adopted by the 36th World Scout Conference in Greece. It was decided that “Gifts for Peace” would be the core programme for the Centenary of Scouting during 2007, and that each National Scout Organization should present a Gifts for Peace project illustrating accomplishments by young people starting in 2005. By 2007, “Gifts for Peace” had now registered more than 120 projects, where 10 million Scouts engaged in a variety of activities in different areas like health, environment, violence prevention, dialogue and interreligious dialogue.
Gifts for Peace report
Aug 01, 2011

Official Launch of the Messengers of Peace Initiative

In the process of developing a new set of actions to further develop Gifts for Peace, a team consisting of representatives from the WSC, WSB and WSF - inspired by a statement by HM the King of Saudi Arabia that said “Scouts are Messengers of Love, Good and Peace” – developed a new inspirational framework called “Messengers of Peace”. With the formal agreement of the World Scout Committee, Messengers of Peace was officially adopted and launched as the 2nd phase of the Gifts for Peace initiative. More than 30 NSOs, represented by youth members, participated in the launch event and a peace camp for cultural exchange.
Sep 24, 2012
MoP Hero Recognition
The Messengers of Peace Heroes Award is created to recognise exceptional Scouts, volunteers and professionals, as heroes for their outstanding work towards a better world. Each year, heroes are highlighted with a prize and ceremony to inspire other scouts to pursue great community service.
MoP Hero Recognition FB

MoP Hero Stories
Dec 01, 2012

The successful first years of Messengers of Peace

By 2012, WOSM’s Global Messengers of Peace was managing the Support Fund and Grant Applications from the 6 WOSM Regions, and more than 2 million US dollars were granted to NSOs to develop service initiatives and capacity building programmes. The Global Messengers of Peace Network was initiated started with the Regions and NSOs, promoting service as one of many ways to build a peaceful community. With the use of social media networks and online resources, the site scoutmessengers.org started registering non-funded service actions. Within 3 months of activity and by the end of 2012, more than 8 million service hours were reported. All National Scout Organizations were introduced to the Messengers of Peace concept and there was a regional and national commitment to promote service efforts as a means to achieve social impact in society.
Jul 30, 2014

Messengers of Peace is aligned with the Youth Programme during the 40th World Scout Conference

The development of a Global Network strategy was initiated to align Messengers of Peace with the World Youth Programme Policy, proposed Triennial Plan 2014-2017 and WOSM Vision 2023. An average of 3 to 5 million service hours are registered each month. The first Better World Magazine is released during the 40th World Scout Conference gathering life-changing projects and stories of scouts around the world, creating positive change in society as active citizens.
May 01, 2015

The Messengers of Peace Programme takes form through new NSO guidelines

The Messengers of Peace initiative now has three components that mutually reinforce each other: The MoP Fund, the MoP Network, and the MoP programme. The MoP programme allows scouts to earn the MoP badge that highlights scouting's efforts towards community service. World Scouting publishes various documents to support NSOs who are interested in the MoP programme, such as NSO guidelines, and a youth-friendly guide on how to become a messengers of peace. Hundreds of MoP projects are funded across the world.
Nov 16, 2018
Messengers of Peace starts alignment with SDGs
“Scouts for SDGs is a mobilisation of 50 million Scouts that leverages the Scout Youth Programme and the Movement’s initiatives under the Better World Framework, including the flagship Messengers of Peace initiative, to raise awareness and take action towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Messengers of Peace programme and Network will provide education for sustainable development, which will contribute to the development of key competencies in young people and the achievement of 17SDG.”
Scouts for SDGs Hub