A Background to Scouting Ireland...

A Background to Scouting Ireland

• Scouting Ireland was formed in 2004 following a decision by the former associations Scouting Ireland CSI and SAI to form a single association.

• Scouting Ireland is the largest youth organisation in Ireland with a membership Over 42,000. Scouting membership has grown by 20% since 2004.

• Scouting is for all regardless of gender, age, religious beliefs, background or nationality. 30% of Scouting Ireland’s membership is female.

• The association has a membership of 9,000 adult leaders, all of whom are volunteers. Over half of Scouting’s adult leaders are aged between 18 & 30 years.

• Scouting seeks to equip young people with life skills, independence and leadership ability appropriate to their age.

• While Scouting moves with the times and uses latest technology across its 462 local Scout Groups nationwide, camping and hiking remain firm favourites with young people, even after 100 years.

• Scouts are the original innovators with youth empowerment a central tenet from the very beginning when many countries in Europe were still without democracy. Today, one of the most attractive aspects of Scouting for young people is the very real freedom to attain their potential in an environment where teamwork and leadership development flourish.

• Scouting has placed a focus on care for the environment and minimising the human footprint on the environment, long before it was fashionable or newsworthy to do so.

• Scouting Ireland has recognised the power of branding in today’s society and has developed a modern, colourful brand identity that enjoys increasingly strong recognition with young and old alike across Ireland and represents a movement that is going from strength to strength with a new, vibrant and more accurate image, in contrast with the ‘traditional’ image of the past.

• Famous former Scouts include Roy Keane, Michael O’Leary, Bob Geldof, Entertainer Graham Norton, TD’s Brian Hayes, Charlie O Connor, Trevor Sargeant and Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

• Other famous former scouts from further afield include Former British PM Tony Blair, Former US President Bill Clinton, Footballer David Beckham, Entrepreneur Richard Branson, Naturalist Sir David Attenborough and Astronaut Neil Armstrong.