What is Venturing?

• Venturing is the young adult division of the Boy Scout of America for young men and women ages 14 – 20 (who have completed the eighth grade).
• Venturing’s purpose is to provide positive experiences to help young people mature and to prepare them to become responsible and caring adults.
• The Venturing program has been tailored to help you religious youth group achieve your aims and purposes by providing leadership training, outdoor and high-adventure activity, program ideas, sports recognition for the youth, audiovisuals, literature, and insurance.
• A Venturing program is owned by your religious organization. You religious organization selects and approves adult leadership. Your religious organization uses elements of the Venturing program to help achieve your specific aims and purposes related to your young adults.

Everyone Wins With Venturing

• Your religious organization wins:
• Venturing will work with any existing youth program structure. It does not require starting another program. Any youth group can incorporate Venturing into its program.
• Venturing will help keep your youth closer to your organization’s beliefs and expectations and connected to the right people.
• Venturing provides a “package” (wholesome, fun activities and recognition) that you can use to hole on to your existing youth and to attract new youth into your religious organization.
• Venturing in your youth group will help display your faith’s role in the welfare of the community.
• The religious awards program will help create an arena in which young adults can interact with religious leaders.
• The adult staff and volunteers win:
• Volunteers and your staff receive specific program suggestions that can be tailored to the needs o f your youth group.
• Opportunity for greater community involvement is provided.
• Communication, planning, and program development skills are enhanced.
• A greater commitment to service results.
• The youth win:
• Venturing stimulates youth interest in wholesome, fun activities sponsored by your religious organization, and can strengthen their commitment to your organization.
• In Venturing, youth are taught hands-on leadership skills alike planning, listening, teamwork, communication, and delegation.
• Venturing’s awards and achievements help your youth feel recognized, give them a sense of belonging, and build self-esteem.

Venturing Resources

• Local and national BSA camping facilities
• Local events and activities tailored to teenagers
• Expertise and program helps for
• Twenty-five outdoor disciplines
• Ten sports challenges
• Meeting plans to assist the crew
• Fifteen superactivity suggestions
• Fourteen nationally recognized awards for young people:
  • Five Bronze Awards
  • Silver Award
  • Gold Award
  • TRUST Award
  • Quest Award
  • Ranger Award
  • Apprentice
  • Quartermaster
  • Able
  • Ordinary
• Four nationally recognized awards for tenured adult leaders:
• Advisor Award of Merit
• Venturing Training Award
• Venturing Leadership Award
• Venturing Advisor’s Key
• Five-hour training for all adult leaders, which includes Youth Protection training
• Eight-session youth leadership skills training course:
• Vision
• Communication
• Listening
• Planning
• Delegation
• Teamwork
• Problem solving
• Styles of leadership
• Advanced leadership training:
  • Two-weekend Nature of Leadership course
  • One-weekend Leadership Challenge course
• Video: Youth officer training and descriptions
• Twenty-seven Ethical controversies modules
• Module on how to use parliamentary procedure
• Module on how to introduce a speaker
• Module on how to make a speech
• CD – Interactive PowerPoint presentation on safe driving
• Instruction on how to conduct an annual planning session
• Instruction on how to conduct a reflection
• Survey for adults to determine expertise
• Survey for youth to determine interest areas
• Guide to Safe Scouting, which includes a section on unauthorized activities
• Low-cost liability and accident insurance

Getting Started

• Secure a commitment from the head of your religious organization.
• Call a brief meeting of key organization members. Your organization head calls a meeting of key members in the organization with a Venturing representative from the BSA local council in attendance.  The Venturing representative can:
• Explain how Venturing works within the framework of the religious organization
• Determine the market for Venturing within the organization
• Describe adult leader roles and responsibilities; discuss prospects to fill adult leadership positions
• Help identify a key adult to serve as the chartered organization representative – a liaison between the religious organization and the Venturing crew (youth group)
• View the Briefing the Organizing committee videotape, AV-03V012
• Conduct planning and training meetings. Your Venturing crew committee and Advisors meet with a Venturing representative to
• Plan the first programs
• Set the open house date
• Review New Crew Fast Start, available on http://www.scouting.org, and determine when to conduct the program capability inventory with adults and the activity interest survey with youth
• Promote attendance at open house.>Members compile a list of five friends each to invite to an open house. A telephone follow-up should be conducted by the committee two days before the open house to all members and prospects. Confirm open house arrangement and print the outline of the crew’s planned program to distribute at the open house.
• Conduct the open house.Follow the suggested open house agenda on page 34 of the Venturing Leader Manual, No. 34655D. Distribute the crew’s planned program to youth and parents.

A Year in the Life of a Venturer...

The Boy Scouts of America recently invited the Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. organization to conduct a poll to scientifically answer the question, “What is it about the BSA programs that leads to positive outcomes?”

The poll identified Six Critical Elements of Healthy Youth Development.  The poll results as they relate to high school-age youth (Venturers) are as follows:

1. Strong personal values and character. Seventy-nine percent of Venturers polled said Venturing gave them opportunities to practice ethical decision making.

2. A positive sense of self-worth and usefulness. Eighty-nine percent of Venturers agreed that being a Venturer has taught them to have more confidence in themselves and their abilities. Eighty-nine percent agreed with the statement, “The activities in Venturing help you prepare for the future.”

3. Caring, nurturing relationship with parents, other adults, and peers. Ninety-one percent of Venturers agreed that they can talk to their Advisors about important issues. Ninety-six percent agreed that they have made new friends in Venturing.

4. A desire to learn. Sixty-five percent of Venturers agreed that Venturing gives them a chance to do things and go places that they would not otherwise experience.

5. Productive/creative use of time. Fifty-six percent of Venturers agreed that during a typical three-month period, they participated in a service project.

6. Social adeptness. Ninety-two percent agreed with the statements, “You learned to get along with people who are different from yourself,” and, “You learned something about how to be a team player and work in a group.”

In a typical three-month period, Venturers responded:

• Eighty-seven percent participate in a group vote or decision.
• Eighty-three percent resolve conflicts with peers.
• Sixty-eight percent participated in a Venturing outdoor activity.
• Forty-two percent have talked with professionals or experts in a specialized field.
• Forty-one percent have leaned about a potential career field.

Religious Life Bronze Award, TRUST Award, and Religious Emblems

Religious Life Bronze Award
The following is a sampling of the requirements for the Religious Life Bronze Award:

• Earn your denomination’s Venturing-age religious award.
• Plan and lead a service project such as helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house, participating in a community cleanup project, or taking on a fix-up project for a nursing home or nursery.
• Serve as a volunteer in your religious organization or another nonprofit organization for at least three months.
• Go on a religious retreat or religious trek lasting at least two days.
• Produce or be a cast member in one type of entertainment production with a religious or ethical theme, such as a play, puppet show, or concert for a group such as a children’s group, retirement home, homeless shelter, etc.

TRUST Award
The following is an overview of the requirements for the TRUST Award:

1. Tending your Faith: Learn about your own religious journey, and earn the religious emblem for your faith group.
2. Respecting the Beliefs of Others: Learn about freedom of religion in the US and learn about religions other than your own in your community.
3. Understanding other Cultures: Learn about the historical significance of cultures in the US and study one cultural group in detail.
4. Serving your Community: Complete a community service project and learn about organizations in your community that serve youth.
5. Transforming our Society: Learn counseling skills, conflict resolution, peace and reconciliation, and how to apply them in your own life.

Venturing Religious Emblems*
Religious emblems are owned by the specific denominations and are authorized by the Religious Relationships Committee, BSA.  The following denominations currently offer religious emblems for Venturers:

*For more information about the religious emblems, contact your local Boy Scouts of America council office or P.R.A.Y.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. If my religious organization starts a Venturing program, how much ownership and flexibility will I have in the program?

Since 1910 the Boy Scouts of America has partnered with religious and community organizations in a unique arrangement. The local council of the Boy Scout organization provides:

• Proven and tested program suggestions for young people
• Professional consulting and organizations services to assist the religious organization
• Camping property available for all affiliated groups
• General liability insurance and low-cost accident insurance

Your religious organization maintains ownership of the following:

• Approving and selecting the adult leadership
• Providing the meeting place
• Determining how the program will be administered to meet its specific aims and purposes

Q. What are the advantages of combining my religious organization’s youth group with Venturing?

• The venturing program provides program ideas and resources that will enhance your existing group’s program. It provides your adult Advisor’s with program materials and training.
• An enhanced youth group program can help retain your high school-age youth and attract new youth to your rganization. It could bring youth and their families into your organization.
• You can weave your specific religious instruction or expectations in with the fun activities of Venturing.
• Working with the Boy Scouts of America, you will discover a wealth of resources: other youth groups in your area, successful fund-raisers, access to camping and retreat properties, leadership training for your adult and youth leaders, literature, and program resources.

Q.  How much does it cost to create a Venturing crew with my religious youth group?

• Twenty-dollar annual charter fee (provides general liability insurance coverage to all registered members, leaders, and your religious organization)
• Ten-dollar annual fee per adult leaders (minimum of four)
• Ten-dollar annual fee per youth (minimum of five)

Q. Is a uniform required?

• A uniform is not required in Venturing. There is an optional Venturing uniform available. Many Venturing crews create their own T-shit or other way of identifying themselves with the group.

Q. Where will we find the leadership?

• Venturing provides an adult survey form that can be used to survey members of your religious organization. It can help identify adult volunteers to serve as Advisors, program consultants, and helpers with transportation, chaperoning, counseling, and planning. In addition, your local Venturing representative can assist you in a process of prospecting and recruitment that can help identify leadership.

Q. Will Venturing compete with my youth group?

• The Venturing Program is designed to complement and enhance your existing group. You choose the elements of Venturing that best complement your program. It is designed to be flexible and fit within the framework you have created. If you don’t have a youth group, it creates a framework to build on.

Q. How do we get started?

• Contact your local Boy Scouts of America office in the white pages of your phone book.  Ask to speak with a unit-serving executive in your area about Venturing.

Six Critical Elements of Healthy Youth Development

1. Strong personal values and character
2. a positive sense of self-worth and usefulness
3. caring, nurturing relationships with parents, other adults, and peers
4. ad desire to learn
5. productive/creative use of time
6. social adeptness

The result s of research conducted by Louis Harris and Associates for the Boy Scouts of America demonstrate that h each of these important elements is addressed through the Venturing structure of teaching leadership and ethical behavior, learning to serve the community, wholesome activities, and recognition of individual achievement.

Sample Venturing Program

The following suggestions can be blended into what your youth group is already doing or can be used for initiating a new youth group.