On Saturday the 8th November, I had the opportunity to go to the Staffordshire Scouts Youth Conference. When we got there we were sorted into our groups – by making animal noises! Once we were in our groups, we did an activity that involved writing our questions on a balloon – there was a lot of pops!
Later on we had talks from various people and we did lots of activities in our groups regarding how WE thought Scouting should be youth led.
The day included lots of cake breaks and lots of talking; it was fun to talk to people from other Districts, because we could find out what they liked about Scouting and what our District could do better. 
We later made videos about Scouting. This was something that was a brilliant way to get the group talking about what they loved in Scouting (personally I think our video was the best.).
We also had the opportunity, within our groups, to come up with a dragon’s den idea that would improve or raise awareness of Scouting. For example, our group did an app that young people could use to write about their groups. That particular activity showed just how many ideas we all had. We also spoke about how we could improve our Districts and how we could look at getting more people in Scouting, which was something I found very interesting.
All in all the day was very interesting and already we have started to look at getting our District’s youth more involved, I have also used ideas from the day to get my Scouts more involved and I feel I know a lot more about scouting and what young people can do to change scouting. I’m really glad I have had this opportunity with scouting and I would love to do it all over again!
Ashleigh Wilcockson
Centurion Explorers, Newcastle-under-Lyme District
Photos courtesy of Paul Creaser
