How to earn your badge
Identify need. Investigate what issues and challenges exist in your chosen community – it could be local, national or international. Plan action. Decide what issue your section should take action on and what you want to change. Talk to your section about what actions you would like to take. Take action over three months. You should: spend at least fours hours personally taking action on your chosen issue. You can achieve more impact by spreading your time out over a month, instead of doing it all in one go. involve others in the action. Work in a team with your section and preferably people in the community you are trying to help. Learn and make more change. Discuss what you’ve learned with your section. Talk about how you have made people’s lives better, what you could do to help more people in your chosen community and how taking action has developed you. Tell the world. Help other people to understand why the issue you took action on is important, what you did and how they can help.
How to earn your badge
Identify need. Investigate what issues and challenges exist in your chosen community – it could be local, national or international. Plan action. Decide what issue your section would like to take action on and what you would like to change. Work with a group of people not involved in Scouting, who are passionate about your cause, to plan action that will make a positive difference. Take action over six months. You should: spend at least 12 hours personally taking action on your chosen issue. You can achieve more impact by spreading your time out, over four months, instead of doing it all in one go. involve others in the action. Work in a team with your section and preferably people in the community you are trying to help. Learn and make more change. Discuss with your section what you’ve learned, how you have made people’s lives better and what you could do to help even more people in your chosen community. Tell the world. Help other people to understand the issue you have made a positive impact on is important and why it’s important. Show what you did and how they can also help.
How to earn your badge
Identify need. Investigate what issues and challenges exist in your chosen community – local, national or international. Plan action. Decide what issue your section would like to take action on and what you would like to change. Work with a group of people not involved in Scouting, who are passionate about your cause, to plan action that will make a positive difference. Take action over nine months. You should: spend at least 24 hours in total personally taking action on your chosen issue. You can achieve more impact by spreading your time out, over six months, instead of doing it all in one go. involve others from your section and a group of non-Scouts, preferably from the community you are trying to help. Learn and make more change. Talk about what you learned with your section, how you have made people’s lives better and what you could do to help more people in your chosen community. Tell the world. Help other people to understand why your chosen issue is important. Explain what you did and how they can also help.
How to earn your badge
Identify need. Find out what issues and challenges exist in your chosen community – locally, nationally or internationally. Plan action. Decide what issue your section would like to take action – what do you want to change? Work with a group of people who are not involved in Scouting, and are passionate about your cause, to plan action that will make a positive difference. Take action over 12 months. You should: spend at least 48 hours personally taking action on your chosen issue. You can achieve more impact by spreading your time out over the year, instead of doing it all in one go. involve your section and a group of non- Scouts, preferably people from the community you are trying to help. Learn and make more change. Talk about what you learned with your section, how you have made people’s lives better and what you could do to help more people in your chosen community. Tell the world. Help other people to understand why your chosen issue is important, how you have made a positive impact and how they can help.
Each young person who participates in the Programme, including badges and awards, should face a similar degree of challenge, and requirements can be adapted according to each young person’s abilities. For more information and practical tips see our guidance on flexibility.
What is community impact?
The Community Impact badge encourages Scouts to take practical action in the service of others, in order to create positive social change. It benefits the wider community as well as the young people taking part. Encourage Scouts to go for this badge and help them consider these questions:
Do you want to take action on issues affecting people in your local area, across the country or all across the world? Is the action you want to take relevant to the community you’re trying to help? Or is it trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist? Will it genuinely change the lives of others, or is it just a nice thing to do? Will the action you want to take genuinely develop you as a person? Or is it actually quite boring, mundane and not very much fun?
Social issues can affect different people in different ways. Young people will face different problems from older people. Those living in the countryside will have different challenges from those who live in a city centre. Social issues in Scotland are very different from those in Tibet. This requirement is about knowing what issues are relevant to the people you are trying to help. Young people should ask themselves:
Who in our chosen community will be an expert in the issues and challenges people face or are passionate about? Are there other sources of research or information we can use to identify issues? What issues do we care about?
Community impact is about creating positive social change, so Scouts must be clear on what exactly they want to change before deciding on what practical action to take. You should help young people to ask themselves, in this order:
What is the problem they are trying to fix? What needs to change to fix that problem? What can we actually do to make that change?
Community impact should develop the young person taking part, so your projects should have some kind of learning outcome. Young people should be given space to reflect and talk about what they have learned.
What have they learned about the issue they took action on? What skills have they learned? How have their values and attitudes developed?
The project should also contribute to social change, and that is unlikely to happen in a short space of time. So once they reach a stage where they consider their project finished, you should support young people to think further.
How could they improve their Community Impact project so that it reaches more people and makes a bigger impact? How could they involve more people in their project? Would they consider participating in a community impact project run by another organisation or group on the same or different issues?
Social change happens when others are inspired to take action. You should support young people to reach and inspire more people who can take action on their chosen issue. You could do this through:
interacting with local media presenting to relevant groups of people such as local business, decision makers and other community groups interacting with other non-Scouting youth groups, such as schools, youth clubs and sports teams speaking to their own families, other Scout groups and sections. Click here for some ideas to help you achieve this badge.