Imagine the impact of the world’s 50 million Scouts each spending 10 hours to better their communities over the course of 50 days in 2019. This is the vision of the first-ever “Season of Service” announced today as a worldwide service project leading up to the 2019 World Scout Jamboree, a celebration of Scouting attended by youths from more than 165 countries.
Supported by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) for the 2019 World Scout Jamboree, the Season of Service effort will give every Scout the opportunity to be involved in community service and to share their experiences with others. In hosting such an effort, we hope to inspire a global movement of volunteerism and leadership by example.
The Season of Service will begin on June 1, 2019 and continue until July 21, 2019, when the 24th World Scout Jamboree begins at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia, U.S.A. During this two-week event - which will be jointly hosted by Scouts Canada, Asociación de Scouts de México, and the Boy Scouts of America - we will conclude this initiative with our first-ever Global Day of Service. This 24-hour global event will culminate with a live-broadcast concert and celebration.
The Global Day of Service will be held on July 27, 2019, beginning at sunrise on Christmas Island in the Pacific with the Kirabati Scout Association, and concluding with Scouts in American Samoa. In every time zone, National Scout Organizations will orchestrate service projects in their country, followed by a celebration to recognize their accomplishments. All participants will be encouraged to share their stories via social media, dedicated apps, and other opportunities.
“Now more than ever, the world and its communities need the power of young people as volunteers,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. “As one of the largest youth organizations in the world, I believe that Scouts are uniquely positioned to lead. We are a values-based, character development organization with a global structure to organize and activate. In 2019, leading up to and during the World Scout Jamboree, we want to make an even bigger difference, taking global volunteerism to a whole new level.”
By guiding our youth members to serve those around them, the Scouting movement hopes to contribute to the education of young people and to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society. In addition, Scouts are taking the initiative to lead by example by taking action – be it addressing environmental and climate change, improving skills, or ending poverty and hunger – to be agents of change and contribute towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“50,000 Scouts assembling here in North America will inspire 50 million Scouts and their communities to do something significant in the 50 days leading up to the jamboree and for the Global Day of Service,” said Martin Walsh, Director of the 2019 World Scout Jamboree. “It’s a simple equation that results in over 500 million hours of community service.”
Through efforts such as the Season of Service, our vision is that by 2023, Scouting will be the world’s leading educational youth movement, enabling 100 million young people to be active citizens creating positive change in their communities and in the world based on shared values.
About the 2019 World Scout Jamboree
For 12 days, tens of thousands of young people from around the world will gather at the 10,600-acre (4,300 hectares) Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia, U.S.A.
The event will be the first world jamboree held in the United States since 1967 and the first time since the 1983 World Jamboree in Alberta, Canada, that a North American site has hosted. While Scouts Canada has hosted world jamborees in the past—1955 and 1983—this will be the first time that Asociación de Scouts de México will share hosting duties with Canada and the United States.
About the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM)
Scouting is one of the world’s leading educational youth movements, engaging millions of young people around the world to be active citizens to create positive changes in the communities they live in. Since 1907! Founded by Lord Baden-Powell, WOSM is a confederation of 165 National Scout Organizations in a network of over 40 million members. As it has been doing for more than a century — creating a better world — it will continue to do so, and even better with the many Messengers of Peace across the globe.
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Published May 24, 2017 1pm EDT / 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST