Messengers of Peace

Scouts: A Generation of Peace Leaders

The absence of peace is a direct barrier to progress and well-being for all. Let’s extend Scouting's legacy of fostering peace by implementing the Messengers of Peace initiative in National Scout Organizations and groups worldwide! Together, we can replace division with unity and replace violence with harmony.

What is the Messengers of Peace initiative?

This initiative is about creating a global community of peacebuilders who build a culture of kindness, understanding and inclusivity. Messengers of Peace (MoP) seeks to address issues in conflict, disaster and community, such as peacebuilding, humanitarian action in times of disaster, conserving heritage, addressing diversity and inclusion, and more.

The challenges in this initiative give young people the opportunity to explore peace education and community engagement, discover their skills and emotional capability to express empathy and solidarity, and the willingness to explore differences between themselves and others to create positive change.

Through Messengers of Peace, NSOs can empower Scouts to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, step beyond their comfort zones, explore the perspectives of others, and collaborate both within their local communities and on a broader scale.

It is up to you to decide which challenges are a good fit for your country’s context, and how to encourage your Scouts to create a masterPEACE!

Navigating the Learning Paths

With the support of Adult Leaders, Messengers of Peace will guide young people on an educational journey to develop their competencies for sustainable development in the area of peace and community engagement.

Like all WOSM initiatives, Messengers of Peace has a variety of learning paths that young people can take. They can explore one or all - it’s up to them to try as many challenges as they like.

There are five Messengers of Peace learning paths:

1. Peacebuilding

Peacebuilding is about taking action and contributing to more peaceful societies.

Scouts will:

Recognize and reflect on their personal biases and prejudices
Practice peaceful conflict resolution
Build trust with dialogue for social cohesion

2. Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion is about embracing diversity, including everyone in the community, and standing up for people's rights.

Scouts will:

Develop an appreciation for the unique identities and backgrounds of different individuals within the community
Gain knowledge about the rights of individuals and the importance of standing up for those rights

3. Humanitarian Action

Humanitarian Action is about supporting others during times of need and crisis.

Scouts will:

Understand the concepts of disaster mitigation, risk reduction, preparedness, response and recovery
Learn how to prepare for and respond to disasters to help communities and people affected by them

4. Culture and Heritage

Culture and Heritage is about creating a sense of belonging, respecting other cultures, and preserving all types of heritage.

Scouts will:

Better understand and appreciate cultures and traditions
Identify ways to protect cultural heritage to bring communities together

5. Civic Engagement

Civic Engagement is about advocating and taking action on local issues of interest.

Scouts will:

Engage in advocacy efforts to address local community issues
Participate in policy-making on issues that they are passionate about

Messengers of Peace Learning Process

The learning process of the Messengers of Peace initiative enables young people to explore and define their educational journey through four milestones:

Discover: Young people learn about their identity, their rights, and how their good deeds can inspire others.
Understand: Young people learn to respect and value people's differences and support those who are struggling by standing up for their rights.
Engage: Young people discover ways to create more peaceful communities by recognizing how personal actions affect others, identifying problems in their community and coming up with ideas to fix them.
Collaborate: Finally, young people act with others to implement projects, such as community projects, education campaigns and advocacy efforts to promote peacebuilding.

Who can take part in Messengers of Peace?

Anyone can become a Messenger of Peace! It is a global network of young people and adults (ages 7 and above) willing to commit to building peace and understanding.

What will young people learn along the way?

In each learning path, Scouts will have the opportunity to achieve specific learning objectives tailored to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) involved, as well as the topic of the challenge. While developing their skills, they can actively create a positive impact aligned with the global sustainability agenda.

How can young people embark on this journey?

To enable young people to begin this journey, National Scout Organizations can incorporate a challenge or the entire suite of Messengers of Peace challenges as part of their national offer. NSOs will also need to incorporate their learning objectives and adapt them in the best way to fit their national guidelines.

Once NSOs have all elements in place, Adult Leaders at the grassroots level will be able to introduce the initiative and challenges to young people.

In order to become members of Messengers of Peace, young people will need to follow the established process with the support of their Adult Leader, as shown below.

If Messengers of Peace is not yet incorporated in your NSO, but you want to start the conversation with young people and adults, you can still explore the Scouts for SDGs hub and encourage young people to engage with activities and digital badges.

Cracking the Symbols and Avatars: The Symbolic Framework

For each learning path, young people can develop their competencies with the support of peers and adults to become an:

Architect

The architect of peace is aware of bias and building trust with dialogue for social cohesion.

Young people can build social cohesion, promote human rights and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, building trust and mutual understanding.

Defender

The defender stands for diversity and inclusion, appreciates the variety of people’s identities, and stands for the rights of people and inclusion.

Young people can recognize others as individuals, understand that each person is unique, and respect individual differences.

Ambassador

The ambassador stands for humanitarian action, prepares for disasters, and reduces negative impact in the community.

Young people can understand the concepts of humanitarian settings and the different contexts and phases of a humanitarian crisis, and understand the needs of their peers and other people in need of support.

Guardian

The guardian of heritage and culture promotes mutual respect and protects cultural heritage.

Young people are able to embrace their culture as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society and the social group they belong to, including art, literature, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.

Advocate

The advocate for civic engagement addresses local issues affecting the community.

Young people can influence life in their local communities and the quality of life in a community through processes and understand global trends affecting their lives and communities.