Scouts Canada faces growing waitlists, volunteer shortages

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More Scouts Canada volunteers are needed in southern Alberta and across the country as numerous youth face waitlists due to high demand.

Graham Rice, a volunteer with the 215th Strathcona group in southwest Calgary, said in terms of volunteers, they can always use more.

There are about 5,000 youth across Canada on the waitlist to join scouts, 380 of which are in southern Alberta — mostly between five and 10 years old.

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“Our pinch point right now is the number of volunteers. Part of our safety ratios that we have is we need to have two volunteers, and at least one to eight ratio of youth to scouters (volunteers) at all times,” said Rice, who has taken on various volunteer roles with scouts over the past 15 years.

With a high demand of kids wanting to join, they can only open up spots if they have enough volunteers to meet ratios. Rice estimates they need 50 more volunteers in southern Alberta to keep up.

Lack of volunteers can lead to cancelled meetings, activities, or even the closing of a group. “We never want to see any of those,” he said.

There has been an uptick in people interested in scouting over the last several years, and they need volunteers to align with interest from youth, said Rice.

“We’ve lost about nine Scout groups in the (Calgary) area, not because we didn’t have scouts that were eager to join, but simply because we didn’t have enough volunteers to support them.”

Some groups weren’t able to recover volunteer numbers in the wake of the pandemic, said Rice.

There are about 70 groups within the Calgary area. “Sometimes when a group closes, we’re able to reshuffle those youth into another local group, but not always.”

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Scouts Canada hopes to support 50,000 young people in 2025, providing opportunities that can’t be found elsewhere. The organization is calling on volunteers and businesses to step up into scouting.

In Alberta, Calgary, Airdrie, Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie have been identified as places where volunteer need is the greatest in the province. Many places in Ontario and British Columbia also need more volunteers.

They are trying to expand the call for volunteers beyond typical avenues — such as parents of youth in the program — to adults and older youth outside the organization, Rice said.

Scouting benefits youth and adults alike

Youth aged five to 14 can sign up for scouts, but there are plenty of opportunities for youth, adults and seniors to take part in volunteering.

You don’t have to be a camping expert to help Scouts Canada grow as a volunteer, according to Rice.

“We’re looking for volunteers with experience in the trades, fundraising, business, technology, event planning and leadership,” he said.

Volunteers must go through a screening process, training, and an interview before “diving in” to their volunteer journey.

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“The benefits for the youth and the benefits for adults are very similar — both of them are welcomed into a lively community where they can connect to new friends, cultivate other mental and physical well-being in nature,” Rice said.

A youth scouting participant for 10 years, now 14-year-old Logan Greenwood also volunteers with the 253rd South Heritage group in Calgary.

“I believe it’s really important for the world to have scouts, and I’d love to see more people joining,” said Greenwood.

“The one big thing that scouting does is leave no one behind.”

He called his scouts experience “awesome”, despite the rough period during COVID-19, where many programs were done in remote formats.

“I love being a youth participant — there’s awesome camps that you do all over the world.

“We need people to step up into the community of scouting, and really be a participant and a volunteer at the same time,” Greenwood said.

“Volunteering as a scout is nothing like your average work day, yes it’s hard sometimes, but you get to teach and allow kids to be themselves.”

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