IDENTIFY AND STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS
 Relationships with other youthserving
agencies—churches, schools,
and civic and fraternal organizations—
are central to Scouting’s success.
Those relationships were made official
by the BSA’s 1916 congressional
charter, but they’re made real each
day by dedicated Scouting volunteers
and professional Scouters.
Building strong relationships is a top
priority in the Mid-America Council
of Omaha, Nebraska. While
maintaining long-standing
relationships with traditional
chartered organizations, the council is
also reaching out to a host of other
groups that share common goals.
“We challenge ourselves each year,
asking what else we can collaborate
on,” said Director of Field Service Brian
Nastase. “If they work with kids, we’re
usually right beside them.”
Easter Seals is one such organization.
When the local chapter had to shut
down its camp a few years ago, the
council offered space at the Covered
Wagon Scout Reservation. A donor
helped make the camp wheelchairaccessible,
while the council created a
program that runs parallel to Boy
Scout summer camp and incorporates
both Easter Seals and Scouting
activities.
“It’s a fantastic collaboration,” Nastase
said. “It has helped us with community
relations and with being able to show
people how we have made a
difference by collaborating.”
The council is also making a difference
by collaborating with the Salvation
Army. When the group needed
training for its leaders, the council
developed retreats specific to the
organization’s needs; last year, more
than 400 youth and adult leaders
participated. The Salvation Army has
also become an important chartered
organization in the council; three of 18
Salvation Army sites in the council’s
service area now boast the full family
of Scouting units. “Some of them have
come and gone because their
turnover is faster than ours,” Nastase said. “It’s time consuming to do these
things, but it’s definitely the right
thing to do.”
A third key relationship is with
Creighton University, where
Scoutreach Chairman John Pierce
serves as special assistant to the
president for diversity and outreach.
When the university adopted four
inner-city elementary schools, the
council started Cub Scout packs
there—and recruited Creighton
students as volunteers.
“We have students here who are on
diversity scholarships and have
service-hour requirements,” Pierce
said. “A couple of them have adopted
this project for their service hours.”
The council has also worked hard to
engage the African American
community in Scouting. Articles about
Scouting regularly appear in a local
African American newspaper, the
state’s largest African American church
has committed to restarting its
dormant Scouting program, and civic
clubs are stepping forward with
financial support for Scout units that
serve African American kids.
Perhaps the council’s most innovative
relationship is with Tyson Meats,
which offers Soccer and Scouting—
the BSA’s signature Hispanic/Latino
outreach program—to the families of
workers at several of its plants. The
company pays for the program and
even supplies translators during
in-plant recruiting visits. Yet another
council collaborator, the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Omaha, provides free indoor
practice facilities. Last year, 170 boys
participated in Scouting thanks to this
unique collaboration.
“It’s growing to the point that Tyson
has asked us what we need to do to
go on a national level with this,”
Nastase said. |