Workforce Language Services

An L.A. Times article highlights the Boy Scouts of America’s effort to draw more Latino youth into their programming.  Their marketing campaign seeks to draw the connection between the Boy Scouts values and the strong sense of family in the Latino community to help balance the fact that only 3 out of every 100 Boy Scouts is of Hispanic origin. 

Paul Moore, head of the L.A. Area Council, speaks honestly about how the image of the Boy Scouts repels rather than attracts Latino families:

“We go in in a uniform that looks like the Border Patrol,” said Paul Moore…. “Then we ask [adult volunteers] to fill out complex applications that ask for their Social Security numbers. I think we’ve found some good ways in L.A. to deal with some of these things, but we have to do a better job of getting parents to see Scouting as something that aligns with their hopes and dreams for their kids.”

While some of the BSA’s core values may chafe against less conservative ideals, it is refreshing to see the association come to realize that it has to be more responsive to the needs of the communities from which it hopes to recruit.