VENTURING

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VENTURING!!

• A Resource to Religious Organizations serving
  High School age Youth

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BSA has steadily expanded the reach of its
value-based programs

• 1910 Boy Scouting for boys 12 to 17
• 1912 Sea Scouting for boys over 14
• 1930 Cub Scouting for boys 8-11
• 1946 Exploring for young men 14-20 who wanted
  advanced Scouting
• 1959 Yankelovich Study of high-school age boys
• 1969 Coed Exploring- Young women ages 14-20
  joined Posts
• 1991 Learning For Life - BSA Subsidiary
• 1998 Venturing - Coed ages 14-20 - Outdoor,
  Religious and Hobby related

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Boy Scouts of AmericaAge-appropriate programs

• Cub Scouting Boys Grades
  1-5
• Boy Scouting Boys Ages
  11-18
• Venturing Coed
  Ages 14-20

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Heres Venturing

• Coed, ages 14-20 - some chartered partners choose
  all- male or all-female
• The methods of Venturing have been carefully
  chosen to meet the needs of Young Adults
• Leadership
• Group Activities
• Adult Association
• Recognition
• Ideals
• High Adventure
• Teaching Others

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Venturing Crew Growth in Religious Organizations

• 1998 1999 2000
  2001 growth since 98
• Community Churches 18
  43 94 124
  589
• Methodist Episcopal 8
  13 17 26
  225
• Evangelical Churches 7
  6 14 20
  186
• Church of Christ 29
  49 67 70
  141
• Nazarene Churches 11
  10 14 25
  127
• Disciples of Christ 54
  80 103 118
  118
• Lutheran Churches 181
  267 342 393
  117
• Jewish Synagogues 10
  14 18 21
  110
• Presbyterian Churches 213
  293 363 396
  86
• Catholic Churches 420 550
  675 781
  86
• Baptist Churches 232
  301 360 416
  79
• Methodist Churches 614
  810 959 1089
  77
• United Church of Christ 63
  71 98 111
  76

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Why is Venturing Growing?

• Aggressive promotion Nation-wide
• Tailor-made for teenagers
• Coed program
• No required uniform
• Extreme sports and outdoor activities
• Targeted resources for new unit growth

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Venturing Oath

• As a Venturer I promise to do my duty to God,
  and help strengthen America, to help others, and
  to seek truth, fairness, and adventure in our
  world.

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What is Venturing?

• Its not a box or a package we present.
• It is focused resources designed to help a
  community organization provide wholesome,
  flexible, well-rounded, challenging activities,
  tailor-made for teenage youth.

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Does your high school age youth group have access
to the following resources

• Use of developed retreat facilities at little or
  no cost for team building and program
• Expertise and program helps for 25 Outdoor
  disciplines with 124 suggested activities
• Awards and recognitions for youth and adults
  recognized nationally
• Professional assistance with program planning,
  volunteer recruitment and finding resources
• Five-hour extensive training for all adult
  leaders
• Two-day Leadership Skills Course for all youth
• Award-winning Youth Protection Video for youth
• Youth Protection training for adults
• Low-cost liability and accident insurance

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Resources continued.

• How to assemble an annual plan (step by step)
• Annual planning meeting agenda
• How to elect youth officers
• Video Youth officer training and job
  descriptions
• Ethical Controversies modules

• Safe Driving CD
• How to introduce a speaker
• How to make a speech
• How to use parliamentary procedure

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Venturing provides structure and substance to a
Church Youth Group

• Venturing is flexible and can work with any
  existing youth program structure
• Venturing can help keep youth closer to your
  organizations beliefs
• Venturing provides a package that can retain
  existing youth and recruit new ones
• The religious awards will help create an arena in
  which young adults can work closely with
  religious leaders
• 70 of all Venturing Crews nationwide are
  chartered to religious organizations

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Silver Award
Eagle
Quartermaster
Ranger Gold Award
Award
Life
Outdoor Youth Sports Arts
and Sea Bronze Ministries
Bronze Hobbies Scout
Bronze Bronze
Bronze
Star
Previous lst Boy Scout
or Class Varsity Scout
JOIN Venturing
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Award Samplings
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The New and Exciting Venturing Ranger Program

• Rangers are elite outdoorsmen
• Ranger are required to teach what theyve learned
  to others
• Rangers work with their advisor and consultants

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Ranger Core Requirements

• 1. Standard First Aid plus When Help is Delayed
• 2. Communications
• 3. Cooking
• 4. Emergency Preparedness
• 5. Land Navigation
• 6. Leave No Trace
• 7. Wilderness Survival
• 8. Conservation

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Ranger Electives(Must earn 4 of 18)

• Backpacking
• Cave Exploring
• Project COPE
• Mountain Biking
• First Aid
• Fishing
• Ecology
• Equestrian
• Hunting

• Lifesaver
• Mountaineering
• Outdoor Living History
• Physical Fitness
• Plants Wildlife
• Scuba
• Shooting Sports
• Watercraft
• Winter Sports

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Youth Ministries Bronze Award

• Earn your denominations Venturing-age religious
  award
• Learn about cultural diversity and make a
  presentation or tabletop display using the
  information you learned
• Plan and lead a service project
• Serve as a volunteer in your church for at least
  3 months
• Keep a personal journal of your experiences

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Youth Ministries Bronze Award

• After volunteering for at least three months,
  share your experiences with others
• Go on a religious retreat or trek for at least
  two days
• Produce or be a cast member in a play with a
  religious theme
• Serve as President or officer in your youth group
• Complete a Standard First Aid course
• Meet with your Religious leader

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Ages of VenturersYear 2001
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Greensboro, North Carolina Wes Reid- Assistant
Scoutmaster-Troop 214Member of Church that
charters Crew

• We noticed that older boys were losing interest
• Most our campouts catered to the new scouts, ages
  11-12
• Older Scouts were looking for more exciting
  adventure
• In our Church chartered units, boys that are 1st
  class scouts are eligible to join the crew
• They continue to work toward Eagle and pursue
  high adventure
• We look at Scouting as part of our Church
  ministry. Having girls in our crew allows us to
  provide a total ministry

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Collinsville, IllinoisTim Stark- Associate
PastorSunlight Church

• Non-Denominational Church
• Organized Venturing crew with Masters Commission
  Program made up of 18-25 year olds
• These are college kids that participate in a one
  year program that teaches character, integrity
  and service
• At the end of the program they spend six weeks on
  the road visiting other Churches. They make a
  visible impact of service.
• 2000 annual plan includes a retreat at the local
  Scout facility for the COPE course and next
  summer to the Northern Tier High Adventure Base
• Their goal is to organize a crew with the high
  school youth group in the church

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Des Arc, ArkansasMelvin York- PastorFirst
Baptist Church

• The High School youth group was organized in 1998
  as a Venturing crew
• The group has 15 boys and 15 girls
• The youth have adopted a golf green shirt as a
  unform
• They meet every Sunday night
• Most of the youth have earned the Youth
  Ministries Bronze Award and the God and Life
  Award
• Two recent Silver Award recipients
• The Pastor conducted the Venturing Leadership
  Skills Course with the youth
• The crew focuses on serving the community.
  Recently they helped organize a Tiger Cub Group
• They have recently gone canoeing and horseback
  riding

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Fullerton, CaliforniaAmanda Delaney and
Christina Canino, Crew 214

• Crew 214 was organized in June of 1998, it has 15
  boys and 15 girls, chartered to a Presbyterian
  Church in Fullerton, California
• Activities include backpacking, rock climbing,
  snowboarding, skiing and COPE
• The youth adopted the spruce green shirt as their
  formal uniform. They designated a navy blue
  t-shirt with their own logo as the activity
  uniform.
• Were all like brothers and sisters, we trust
  each other.
• We set our own rules no boy/girl buddy system,
  go in threes in mixed company.
• Venturing is more than we expected.
• The guys have seen me on campouts without my
  makeup on and they still like me.

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Louisville, Kentucky - Lincoln Heritage Council

• Organized 24 Venturing crews with religious youth
  groups
• Pastors were surveyed about why they included
  Venturing with their high school age youth group
• Access to camp property - COPE course- religious
  retreats
• Structure and enhancements that Venturing
  offered- youth and adult training- advancement-
  programming, youth protection, etc.
• Council has organized quarterly events for all
  youth groups to attend.

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Cascade Pacific CouncilPortland, Oregon

• December 31 - 40 growth in youth(6661), 19.5
  growth in units(312)
• Invited Pastors from inner-city community
  Churches to Scout Camp for Impact Event
• 30 units have been organized from this event
• Council created field trips and quarterly events
  at council camps, they use COPE course
• Pastors organized Venturing for Faith

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Rick Newton Crew AdvisorTidewater, Florida

• Crew 520 was started in May 1999 when St. Simons
  on the Sound Episcopal Church was looking for
  something to help them sustain a youth group.
• We began with five youth. Last Tuesday we sent
  our recharter package in with 30 kids names on
  it, all with paid up dues and excited about
  Venturing. Two more kids showed up at our last
  meeting with friends, liked what they saw, and
  took joining paperwork home to their parents. I
  have youth from 5 different High Schools. We are
  busting at the seams.
• Seven of our kids just started their high
  school-age Pope Pius XII Religious Award.
• These kids like showing up in safe places in
  their green polo shirts, sitting as a crowd, and
  getting recognized.
• Our youth group has gone windsurfing, scuba
  diving, mountain biking and horseback riding
• We have great youth officers, all Seniors in High
  School that are now training the sophomores and
  juniors to take their places.

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Erik Moeller St. Vincent de Paul
ParishArlington, Texas

• May of 2000 created a Venturing crew at the
  Parish
• It works as a subset of the existing high
  school-age youth group
• We asked all the youth interested in outdoor
  activities if they wanted to be a part of an
  outdoor club
• Our group is 50 male/female
• Their favorite activity is the high and low ropes
  challenge courses

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Frequently Asked Questions ???

• How much ownership will my religious organization
  have if we start a Venturing crew with my High
  School age youth group?
• What are the advantages of combining my religious
  organizations youth group with Venturing?
• How much does it cost to create a Venturing crew
  with my religious youth group?
• Is a uniform required?
• Where will we find leadership?
• Will Venturing compete with my youth group?
• How do we get started?