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Boy Scouts Start Recruitment Drive In Latino Communities

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts)
Feb 5th 2010 3:00PM

71Comments

Filed under: In The News

The Boy Scouts are recruiting Hispanic kids. Credit: Corbis

A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

And if he happens be Hispanic too, gosh, that would be swell.

Scout leaders are specifically looking for Hispanic kids.

"The challenge we have is that there's very little understanding of what Scouting is about in the Hispanic community, at least in the first- and second-generation families," Marcos Nava tells the Denver Post. He heads the Boy Scouts of America's Hispanic Initiatives project in Irving, Texas.

He tells the Post that Denver is part of a national pilot project to recruit Scouts from the Hispanic community.


The Boy Scouts' Denver Area Council includes about 9,000 Boy Scouts. Only 10 percent of them are Hispanic. The council's chief executive, John Cabeza, tells the Post that number could potentially triple.

"We know if we can get kids into Scouting, they're more likely to graduate from high school, stay out of trouble and succeed in life," Cabeza tells the newspaper. "We want to reach a larger percentage of those young people."

Scouting is in trouble overall.

The total number of Scouts has dropped by 17 percent to 2.8 million boys over the past decade, according to the Post. The drop is especially acute among the Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts and Webelos -- the programs for younger children who eventually become full-fledged Scouts.

Part of the reason, the Post reports, is that Scouting is increasingly controversial politically. National Scouting leaders banned openly gay people from serving as troop leaders in 1991.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing demographic group in the United States. Scouting leaders may see this new recruitment drive as one way of preserving their organization.

"Our goal is to have 200,000 Hispanic Scouts by the end of the year," Nava tells the Post. "It's a very aggressive goal, but I think we've put together a marketing program that's tremendous."

Nonetheless, the Post reports, Scouting faces some problems in the 21st century.

"The main problem they face is the image," Walker McDonald tells the Post. He is a part of 4 Aspects, a Denver-area group that works with schools and at-risk youth to discourage truancy and gang activity.

"A young kid wearing a uniform on the streets could face harassment, especially if he doesn't have older siblings," McDonald tells the paper.

"It's critical that Scouting partners with existing neighborhood programs," he adds. "And I mean real solid grassroots programs, not United Way."

Boys Scouts of America officials are hiring more bilingual and bicultural staff. A Spanish-language Scout handbook came out late last year.

"Not every child will connect with Scouting, but we need to give them the opportunity," Bob Mazzuca, the CEO of Boys Scouts of America, tells the Post. "Scouting makes families stronger, and family is foremost in the Hispanic community."

Related: Did the Girl Scouts Need a Makeover?

Tags: boy scouts, Boy Scouts Hispanics Latinos Recruitment, hispanic

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