FLAGS Blogs
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Manager's Blog - April 2015
24th April 2015
Welcome to my first ever Managers Blog !!! following the unit camp, members told me you wanted to hear more about what’s going in the unit, and how you can get involved. So, what better why then a monthly blog to tell you what’s been happening, and our plans for the future. This month’s is a little longer then usual, but please bare with me as I have loads to tell you.
Working with HQ
As mentioned as the unit camp, I hold a bi-monthly call with HQ and the Specialist Advisors for Inclusion and Diversity to talk about what FLAGS are working on, and how we can support their work. This month Debbie, UK Commissioner for Adult Support joined us to talk about the wider diversity strategy and the work plan for the year ahead. The call was a great opportunity to share my thoughts for what HQ should be focusing on, but also an opportunity to explore the work we can do over the next 12 months.
Here is just the headlines of the areas we discussed, and working together we will look at how these can be taken forwards on the next year. Throughout my blogs, I’ll not only give you an update on how we doing against our service agreement, but also how we are moving some of these areas forwards.
1.LGBT Role Models
We want to take as many opportunities as we can to showcase LGBT adults in Scouting and show more people that it’s ok to be Gay and a Scout Leader. We’ll being using pride events, and other key moments throughout the year to showcase leaders and young people, and show we’re a diverse movement. We’re also looking at ways of developing videos to share our experiences.
2.Supporting Young People
We’re going to spend time over the next year looking at how LGBT young people would like to be supported in Scouting, and collecting an evidence base to feedback to HQ and Debbie.
3.Supporting Pride
This will continue to be a key focus for the next 12 months, we will initially be looking to support more of the key pride events, and then be looking at how we can enable local scouting to attend events
4.Programme Ideas
We want to look at creating a small reange of diversity programme ideas for leaders to use with young people. We will do this in partnership with HQ.
5.Gilwell Reunion
We want to review our attendance at Gilwell Reunion to ensure we are providing the right support to all members of the unit, and the wider association.
6.Membership Survey
In September we will complete a membership survey to ensure we are still meeting the needs of our members, and begin to complete information for our new service agreement.
International
This month our international work has stepped up a gear, and we are being asked by more international Scout Associations for advice and guidance on supporting LGBT members. Earlier this month I took the time to have a skype call with Australia to share with them our experience of London Pride, and also start them on the move to setting up their own LGBT fellowship.
This month, the UK Scout Association hosted the Overture Network; this is an informal network for Scout and Guide Associations in Europe to share experience and best practice. During the weekend I had the opportunity to network and share best practice with organisations across the Europe, and have not only made some great friends but also developed relationships with different organisations. I took the time to build a longer term relationship with the Rainbow Scouts of Austria, and also with Scouts Ireland. You can read more about the relationships here.
This coming month Ill be attending a roundtable with the europeaon region of WOSM, Ill update you on this in my next blog.
Get Involved
There’s loads of ways that you as members can get involved in supporting the unit and its members. Why not check out our service agreement,, and let us know if there’s a way you could support it. Here are just a few of the areas were currently looking for support
- We’re looking for someone to support us in filming and editing a couple of videos. One about coming out as a Scout, and the second about attending pride events.
- We’re looking for members to organise social events around the UK, to help bring members together, we’ll support you we just people to choose a venue and be visible to members on the night.
- We’re looking for members to help us organise attendance at pride events across the UK. We’re looking for people to be our local contacts, and help us promote our attendance with local members.
- We’re looking for someone to help us write a document to share our experiences with Scouts across the World. This will be a one off project, and would be ideal for someone who knows the history of FLAGS.
Finally, Thanks for taking the time to read this extra large manager’s blog. Each month a member of the team will also provide a short update on their projects, as well as continuing to let you know how you can get involved.
Thanks Mike.
Manager@flagscouts.org.uk
My experiences as a Transgender Person in Scouting
15th February 2015
To celebrate LGBT History Month, Deanna, an Explorer Scout Leader from Hampshire, tells us about her experiences as a transgender person in Scouting:
At around 13, I became aware of some gender confusion in my life and started feeling like I should have been born female instead of male. I kept this to myself as I had no idea why, or if anyone else had similar thoughts. The first time I started properly accepting my gender issues was at the age of 18 in 2000. The internet helped me to find out that there were other people in similar situations.
In 2008, I started living and socialising part of the time as female and the year after I began to live full-time as a female, with the name Deanna.
Scouting was a big part of my life and was the biggest thing holding me back from transitioning to living as a woman earlier. I didn't know what the reaction would be from leaders or other members. Thankfully, it turned out to be a non-event for everyone else.
I notified my District Commissioner and Scouting HQ to explain the situation and had a meeting with my other Explorer Leaders to discuss how we should let the Explorer Scouts know. We decided on a straightforward letter explaining Gender Identity Disorder and stating that I would be returning to Scouting as a woman called Deanna.
When the time came, we sat everyone down and explained what was happening, and to my surprise, everyone was really positive. I even got a few 'congratulations' from various people.
Since then I have become involved in FLAGS, the Scout Active Support Unit which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults in Scouting. Through FLAGS I’ve helped to inform policy and procedures and represented Scouting at Pride in London.
I am also training to provide support through the diversity and inclusion teams at the County and national level (Specialist Advisers for Inclusion and Diversity), to raise awareness of equality of all forms, and to dispel myths around LGBT members in Scouting.
A big part of transgender support is acceptance, support and being treated as every other person in your identified gender. It's worth bearing in mind that not everyone identifies as one gender or the other, and there are people that are quite 'fluid' in their gender and may change over time or be somewhere in the middle.Young Peoples Voices
5th February 2015
Less than half of 18-24 year olds are registered to vote.
Use these resources to make sure that young people have their voices heard in the upcoming general election http://bit.ly/1zCKRpP
