Youth Involvement Evaluation on Focus Group
On 17th May of 2021, I have joined in a discussion about Youth Involvement Evaluation for 50 minutes. But due to my country regulation on lockdown, we have limited access to gather and discuss face-to-face so the discussion was held via the platform Zoom. Actually, I wasn't expecting that the discussion will involve some of the people from the National Scout Organization of Malaysia, but it is such as unforgettable moment and experience I got and it's also inspired me to improve my English because we speak fully in English during the event. I am the youngest person in the discussion among 5 other interviewers from National Scout Organization. They are really warm once I step into the platform. The moderator is so welcoming me to share my opinion for their research. I have been asked around 8 questions that are related to youth engagement in scouting. I will be sharing the pdf of it down below for your reference (Mine is 15-18 years old question).
I really think that this discussion affects me a lot by their concern toward me as a youngster. I got a chance to speaks my opinion also they are open to receive any question from me and any wishes since some Malaysian are celebrating Eid al-Fitr. I feel that people in the high organization really care about young people in scouting, making me more compelled to serve in any scouting activity because we are welcomed in a huge association.
Last but not least, I would like to share some greetings words from Asia Pacific Regional Support Centre for this event :
In the last 10 years, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) has promoted youth involvement through a World Policy and a Strategy distributed in three triennial plans. To evaluate this 10 years of advocating for Youth Involvement, we have been collecting data from different sources, including different surveys conducted in the regions and NSOs.
WOSM would like to collect data on the implementation of Youth Involvement through the “Focus Group.” We would like to seek support from your National Scout Organization to collect this qualitative information through different focus groups, reaching out to young people from all age sections, at the grass-root level.
The objective at this stage is to collect qualitative data on youth involvement to better understand the impact of the strategy implementation within local Scout troops. This project will be led by the Regional Youth Representatives (RYR). We would be interested in listening to perspectives and testimonies that can help us narrow down information while evaluating the criteria set up in the Youth Involvement Strategy and taking into account other ways to reflect the perspective of young people.