Today is Time to Talk Day and now more than ever it is so important to stay connected. Just having a chat can have such a positive impact on your mental health and we are dedicated to keeping our young people connected during this testing time!
We caught up with Dave Cook, Scout Leader at 1st Ystrad Mynach, to find out how he has been keeping his group connected.
“I’m a Scout Leader in the Welsh Valleys and I’m going to put my hand up and say I’m honestly not the biggest fan of Zoom! I run a Scout Section; we meet regularly on a Thursday evening. I consider myself quite an active Scouter, my Scouts are usually out and about doing something. In fact, the weekend before the first national lockdown I took my Scouts and some Explorers to London for the Alternative Monopoly Run. I’m sure you can imagine the stress and anxiety that caused me and my team – making the call on whether we should make the trip or not.
“The following week I was as shocked as everyone else when the national lockdown was declared. We didn’t run Scouts that week, nor the following week as when we went into lockdown, we weren’t really sure what to do next. I have three children and what became apparent very quickly was that they weren’t speaking to anyone, they weren’t calling their friends and weren’t socialising as I had expected them to. So, I thought, what could I do? I’m a homeworker for BT, we use Zoom, Teams, Skype for video calls regularly – I set up a Zoom call and invited my Scouts to attend.
“We had a great call, just a chat, some silly games, I made the Scouts laugh and they made me laugh, we ran some silly Kahoot Quizzes (based on the muppet show if I remember correctly), a scavenger hunt that had the Scouts running round the house finding random things, things we could talk about. I’ll be honest I didn’t do badge work; it wasn’t really that educational – we spoke and laughed we said goodbye and they said can we do it again, and we have. Just about every week since March (I think we have missed maybe four weeks) we have met and had lots of fun. We’ve done everything from human Guess Who to me reading them a silly, childish bedtime story (for anyone who thinks that wouldn’t go down well with 10-14 year olds you didn’t see them all running to grab blankets!).
“We did try and get back to face to face Scouting, but we only managed a single Face to Face activity, a walk, it was great, and we all enjoyed it. We have done some badge related stuff; we spoke about Knife and Axe safety and fire-lighting preparing to return to face to face (lockdown 2 stopped that). We have tried virtual camps, we had little interest, we have posted challenges for Scouts to complete – we had little uptake, yet every week the Scouts turned up for the Zoom Calls and for a chat.
“I see lots of posts on Facebook about the fantastic virtual challenges and camps that people are doing, the badges they have awarded and the Scouting they have done. Sometimes, I compare it to my own sessions and feel that I have let my Scouts down.
“The reality was brought home to me before Christmas when I was speaking with parents, they thanked me for the difference I have made, for the continuity I have brought, for the fact that for an hour on a Thursday they hear their kids laughing and charging about the house in search of some random object as part of a scavenger hunt.
“I took two weeks out over Christmas, I spent ages trying to find inspiration on Facebook and the great materials on the Scout Website and started to look at what we could run. This week was my first week back, and we held a Troop Forum. “what do you want to do guys?” – “can we keep doing what we are doing” was the resounding answer. I have arranged for a “cook along” in a few weeks’ time, they like the idea of that, I’ll look for other guests who can come and cause “chaos”.
“I’ll be honest though I’m going to continue to focus on smiles not badges. If you haven’t run any sessions and are intimidated by the thought of running a full programme over Zoom, relax, engage with your Scouts, ask fellow leaders for support and look for the fun. There are more important and impactful things then the number of badges and awards we hand out currently and it’s still not too late to start.”
This #TimetoTalkDay, why not organise a catch up and chat with your section or even other volunteers? We’d also love to hear about your experience of mental health awareness in Scouting and if you’d be interested in making mental health a bigger part of ScoutsCymru. Please send your experiences to Christian@scoutscymru.org.uk
