South Circular: Autumn 2016

South Circular

Autumn 2016

A summer of amazing international adventures also featuring...

A few words from Jack Berry, Youth Commissioner South Circular

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Editors Word

In This Issue Editors Word 1 Around the South Circular 3 Let’s Meet: Jack Berry

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Making a massive difference 5/6 We rove in bands

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Well, here we are, the relaunch of South Circular. This is actually not issue one of the magazine, South Circular used to be in circulation many years back. The Team and I hope that this is a modern and lively magazine to which our Young People can contribute to!

This is an exciting time for me, firstly, I’m baffled that I’ve been able to pull this off, as an online publication is an amazing way for the talent of South London to express themselves and ultimately, make our County feel so much more interconnected, linked up and ‘in the know’ as it were.

Our first issue has started with a bang, capturing all of the international trips that many young people have experienced over the Summer including Lewisham District’s Expedition to Kenya and the Gilwell Gang’s adventure to France as part of the UK Contingent to Roverway 2016. It is marvellous to see what amazing adventures our young people have been experiencing and the power of Scouting to make these things possible.

Contributors With thanks to the contributors to this issue.

Sam Chatterley Jack Berry

3rd Camberwell’s Leader Celia Wenban-Smith raised an important matter of time committment to the magazine. Of course some Scouts across the County won’t have time to completely committ to being a YSP, however if your group would like to feature in the magazine through text, image or any other method, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Lucy Ann-Cornwell

facebook.com/SouthLondonScouts GLS_Scouts

Writing this, I’m already thinking about our Winter edition! My focus of this magazine is for it to be completely, yes completely, young people led. Basically, this text box is my only contribution to the magazine as well as just putting it all together, but I’d really like the content to be up to our amazing youth members.

I’d like to thank the Young Spokesperson team that I’ve managed to pull together over the last month or so and wish them well with their adventure on South Circular. It should be a blast!

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Rory Sheridan bit.ly/GLSonYouTube South Circular

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South Circular

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Around the South Circular...

Alex Bienkov on Royal Greenwich District Scouts’ group: What fun we all had at JOTA/JOTI at Severndroog Castle yesterday.

A very big thanks to all the team from Cray Valley Radio Club for helping us contact our brother and sister scouts worldwide.

See you all next year!

8thWandsworthScouts on Twitter: @8thWandsworthSG The Beavers, Cubs, scouts and explorers all got together to make our biggest camp den yet!

Bill Compton on Lewisham Scout District group: Well done to 3rd Crofton Park Troop on winning Lewisham Commando by coming first in 7 out of 10 tasks.

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Lets Meet: Youth Commissioner

Jack Berry I started my Scouting life as a Beaver with 3rd Blackpool. Since then I have been involved at every level of Scouting.

As a Scout I took part in district Camping and Hiking completions, even winning a few. At Explorer Scout age I was involved with the Lancashire Youth Council, before being involved with Blackpool’s Network unit, where I stayed during university. I took a brief hiatus from Scouting after moving to New York. On my return to the UK and starting a life in London, I felt that Scouting was missing. Since then I have been an Assistant Scout Leader with 46th Greenwich and very recently appointed Youth Commissioner for Royal Greenwich District.

Since I was appointed to the post of District Youth Commissioner nearly a year ago I have been trying to understand properly how Scouting can encourage the ‘youth shaped’ initiative.

What can make ‘‘youth led’’ work?

It is important to have this driven by existing knowledge and experience. In that sense the younger leaders and YSLs need mentoring by the older leaders BUT this must be a gradual process, no one is expects anyone to organise an entire scout night/camp/program right away, but if they want to give it a try it should be encouraged and they should always be involved (not just boiling kettles and organising the games). This is happening now, I see it within my own troop and across the Royal Greenwich district and it’s great to see. The youth have the knowledge, they have been taught by the best and now it’s time to let them pass it on themselves.

Is ‘youth led’ something that means the oldies just sit back and let the kids run the show?

No, absolutely not. This is a youth are the movement, but the leadership are the core and the facilitators of it. Youth direction goes right up from asking your cubs what to do in the next segment of the program right up to supporting a group of Patrol Leaders organising their own camp. It’s a two way deal, the youth need help and the leaders need help. It has been done this way for years; it’s just now there is a name for it.

Scouting is the best thing I have done in my life and that is why I, like so many others within our district give so much and have been involved for so long.

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Do you Scout in Royal Greenwich?

What would you like to see from your youth commissioner?

Requests on an e-postcard: jackmberry@gmail.com

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Making a massive difference Lucy Ann Cornwell

In August 2016, I travelled over to Kenya as a group of 26 people (13 children and 13 adults) to further improve the lives of the children living in Kenya.

The project is called Harambee for Kenya which is a charity run within Scouting. It helps the Kenyan street children by getting them off the streets and into a safe house environment. The first project expedition was 2009 and it gives the children a good start in life by providing them with accommodation, education and basic provisions to survive.

While being over there we were able to paint the building of the Meru safe house to provide a vibrant space for them to learn and relax. We painted a chalkboard onto the wall for the children to further improve their education. We also made a bigger washing line to make it easier for them to hang their clothes up. Also we put up a basketball net so the boys in the house could play together.

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At the Kisii safe house we did some maintenance work such as redoing the chicken house by putting new mesh up, we also concreted the cooking shelter to make it a safer environment.

In addition to the jobs at the safe houses we also were able to take the children to a scout campsite which none of the boys have ever been to before. Here we played games and went to see Baden-Powell’s grave and house.

I thought this was good because he was the founder of Scouting and without him a group of people like us would not be within the same association to take part in such a life changing project for the Kenyan street children.

When I was around the children I was able to improve their English skills as they had to use English instead of Swahili to communicate. I also educated them on the way we live in England and taught them that we also learn the same things within school (which surprised them).

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Taking part in this project has made a massive difference to all of the young people we were working with, we were able to help them to improve their English, make them understanding the way that people in England live, teach them that we learn similar things at school, improve their living environment, give them the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds, enable them to meet boys from other areas of Kenya when we went to the Scout camp, and finally to inspire them to continue to achieve their ambitions.

From the experience it has made me realise that I am lucky to have what I’ve got it’s made me appreciate everything in life. The children over there had so much determination and are willing to give everything they can to achieve it and therefore it makes me feel like I should always work my hardest to achieve the best.

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I will miss all the boys so much and remember them forever

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We rove in bands Sam Chatterley Roverway started for me at Gilwell 24 2015, where, plying my musical trade, I was approached by the CMT responsible for UKC media, and asked to write a song for the UK advertising campaign.

I duly obliged, before promising they’d see me at signups. Fast forward to September of 2015, I had returned from WSJ2015 and begun putting together a patrol of my own to take with me on my journey to France. I named the patrol ‘Gilwell Gang’, as the connection to us all was the friendships forged at Gilwell 24, with my APL being a good friend of mine from Hull.

The fundraising process became rather simple for me, as at the time, I was literally employed to do just that. I was employed by the British Red Cross as a paid fundraiser, putting my Scouting skills to the test on the streets of London on a daily basis. There was however, one individual who supported me above and beyond what was necessary, that being my grandfather, Albert (Jack) Chatterley. Jack passed away in February, but before he left us, he gave to me a significant donation towards my life adventures, Roverway included.

Briefing 1 flew by, informing us of the bespoke kit available to us, as well as adding two members to our patrol, an example of the camaraderie and friendship available through Scouting.

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It was at Briefing 2, however, the opportunity to join something called the ‘Roverband’, surfaced. This is where my Roverway experience was a little different to most participants’ experience. I was one of 7 musicians selected across all participating countries, and of 2 selected from the UK, to take part in the Roverband. Managed by our French contact Helain (Papa Poulet), we led the entertainments for the entire event.

I was flown out by Scoutisme Français to Jambville for an additional weekend, giving us a unique opportunity to meet first-hand the team behind Roverway, as well as my other bandmates. The band consisted of three singers (from Portugal, Spain, and Slovenia),

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two guitarists (myself and an Irish Scout), a British pianist, and a drummer, bassist, and violinist from France. These incredible musicians would become my surrogate patrol as, sadly, upon accepting my place in the Roverband, I became unable to effectively lead Gilwell Gang, and therefore abdicated my place as PL with my APL taking over.

While I am used to public performance, this event showed me a new dimension to it. Never have I been more appreciative of the musical opportunities Scouting offers both domestically and worldwide. Given the opportunity I would return to Jambville with the Roverband in a heartbeat. I would recommend any musician in Greater London South to apply for the Roverband, and any eligible Scout to apply While most participants were sent sur la route, for Roverway on the whole, it’s an experience meaning they were to jet to destinations you will treasure for years to come. all over France to complete community activities, before returning to Jambville (the French equivalent of Gilwell Park), we were sent directly to Jambville to become part of the event planning team. What followed was an intense week of rehearsal with the Roverband, playing through and learning a 25 song playlist. It was only then dawning on me that I’d be playing a show in front of 5000 scouts, as we would be performing at the opening, midweek, and closing an opportunity.

If I’m truly honest, my trademark hubris with regard to my own ability was gone, and I was a ball of nerves. Add to that, I had been asked to perform individually as part of the preceremony entertainment, performing La Vie en Rose to a growing crowd, and it certainly became the opportunity of a lifetime.

Annual National Service for Seafarers On Wednesday 12th October. the 4th Streatham (Princess Marie Louise’s Own) Sea Scouts represented Scouts from all over the UK at the National Service for Seafarers held at St Pauls Cathedral in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, the Lord Mayor of London.

Jessica Ward and Yandi Shyngle, along with the Group Scout Leader Barbara Parsons formed the colour party for the Scout flag in the flag procession, and Frankie Postles (ACSL) read some of the intercessions.

Other members of the 4th Streatham and Lambeth District represented Scouting in the congregation.

The Team South Circular

Young Spokespeople

Photography

Editor

Sam Chatterley Kian Cropley Abii Phillips Joe Tye

Ronnie Buckle Georgia Nelson

Rory Sheridan

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southcircular@southlondonscouts.org.uk

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Have you explored the new digital home of South London Scouts?

The new look South London Scouts website is your one stop shop for all things Scouting in South London. Some highlights include, within our new Members Area, you can find out all upcoming training dates, find out where to hire a minibus, get essential information on how to support those with special needs. Also, the South London Scout Centre has moved onto this site and finally,our site is generally more outward looking,showing prospective young people and their parents the amazing opportunities that Scouting can offer!

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