PROBLEM STATEMENT a. What is the problem or need that this project is addressing? Reaching out to and/or including socially vulnerable children and youths (i.e. the prime subject of ‘diversity’ in a context of scouting) is not self-evident for our organization. This is problematic because both the regions of Flanders and Brussels (the action-domain of FOS Open Scouting) are demographically and socially evolving toward a more diversified and socially vulnerable constitution. As a consequence we do not sufficiently succeed in reaching a significant part of children and youngsters in our society. As a pluralistic youth movement, we should not be ignorant of this situation. On the one hand we believe scouting can have a significant added value in the lives of socially vulnerable children and youths. On the other hand, we risk making ourselves irrelevant in not knowing how to address a steadily growing group of young people, especially in the major cities. b. Why does the problem or need exist? Include historical, political, social and economic reasons that explain why your project is needed. Within our own organisation, a twofold dynamic lies at the basis of this limited outreach: (a) the ownership of the theme diversity comes about rather difficult on the level of our national volunteers, (b) As NSO we do not always succeed in joining in with our units regarding the theme. Consequently, the impulses we develop regarding diversity do not always get through to the basis, namely the members and leaders of FOS Open Scouting. At the same time, social vulnerability and poverty is on the rise in Flanders and Brussels which makes it essential that we (i.e. NSO, volunteers, units) learn how to share our scouting-method with a fast growing group of children and youths. 2.4 SOLUTION STATEMENT a. Concisely explain the main goal of your project. First of all: As a NSO, we cannot directly reach socially vulnerable children and youths. Therefore, the focus of this project is to stimulate and sensitize our units and national volunteers to deal with diversity. As an intermediary between our ‘umbrella’ and (new) members of FOS Open Scouting, they can make a difference for socially vulnerable children and youths ‘on the field’. The actions in this project are consequently aimed at the units and volunteers, and not directly at the ‘target-groups’, which does not mean that we consider them as passive. As NSO we can only provide the necessary tools and frames to let the units and volunteers put the target-groups to the fore themselves (cf. dossier p. 4). This being clarified, a long term objective lies underneath this project: by December 2017, we want every part of our organisation (from leaders to the Federal Board) to deal consciously with diversity. By using a distinct approach we believe that our units and volunteers by then will deal with diversity sustainably, but that it will also make our units more accessible for socially vulnerable children and youths. b. How are you going to address the problem or need in order to achieve your main goal? The long term objective ‘In 2017 FOS Open Scouting deals consciously with diversity’ is subdivided into two categories of sub-objectives. A. Sub-objectives on unit level: Units deal consciously with their own diversity(policy) and continuously strive to: - Improve the quality of their own leadership: this does not only benefit (socially vulnerable) children and youths, but also the unit as a whole; - Actively search for encounters with others and break through barriers; - Broaden the activities or make them more accessible; - Undertake social action to improve the situation of socially vulnerable children and youths. B. Sub-objectives on the level of national volunteers: National volunteers become owner of this theme and continuously strive to: - Further develop and adjust their own view on diversity; - Create a diversity-reflex in contact with leaders and chiefs of the units, when confronted with questions and problems and/or informal education; - Entrench the theme into their own set of tasks. In order to achieve these sub-objectives, a ‘diversity-matrix’ was developed. The long term process ‘dealing consciously with diversity’ can be divided into three sub-processes: sensitization, dialogue and training. The sub processes are situated on different levels of action: the level of the individual units, of all units and of the national volunteers. Put together, an action matrix with sub-processes with different actions according to the level of action arises (cf. dossier p. 10). These actions are combined with actions regarding external communication about the project and regarding an advisory board to complete the ‘diversity-matrix’. The matrix as such is a template that can be used up till December 2017 (cf. dossier p. 13-14). The implementation of the complete project consist of multiple phases. The first phase is the ‘pioneer-phase’, the second the ‘operational-phase’.