A Canadian Scouting Association, Scouts Canada, includes thousands of members, as well as parents and volunteers involved in the organization. Scouts Canada teaches young people aged 5 to 26 positive values, community involvement, as well as it encourages physical fitness and personal growth.

Canadian parents see scouting as the way to boost their child’s confidence and responsibility. They believe that scouting is the way to a broader set of friends and it provides their children with a chance to pursue things they might not get to do otherwise. Scouting in Canada is often associated with some kind of an adventure, both for a child and a family. There are countless benefits of scouting! Nevertheless, we would like to focus on the top 10 benefits it provides.

1. Independence

Scouting provides each boy and girl with a role within the troupe. So young people are given various tasks and through such kind of activity, they learn how to be independent. Gaining a sense of independence at a young age is an important contribution to a child’s happy future.

2. Nature Appreciation

Scouts in Canada can participate in camping trips and visit some summer camps where they spend time close to nature. The air in the mountains or down by the lake where camps are usually set up is much cleaner and this helps to decrease the risk of respiratory health problems.

3. Fitness

As scouting includes various hiking and trekking trips, children can improve their physical fitness as well as get used to physical activity. So scouting is considered to be a fun and enjoyable way of maintaining healthy body weight. Also, it helps to become stronger and agiler.

4. Mental Development

Scouting helps to gain problem-solving skills. As children take part in many activities that help improve their memory, observational and mathematical skills, scouting is considered to be a good way that leads to the mental strength needed in nearly in all areas of their life, including school, work, and personal life.

5. Psychological Health

Scouting provides young people with emotional stability achieved by the improvement of such personal qualities as courage, trust, empathy, and self-confidence.

6. Friendship

Participating in different activities with the same troop year after year helps children to build a lifelong friendship with children that come from different backgrounds or schools. Scouting is considered to be even the better way to build strong friendship than, say, schooling as children interact in the most honest way possible and respect each other for who they truly are.

7. Ambitiousness

Scouting provides young people with healthy competition, so they can learn how to work in the most efficient way together. Furthermore, they gain a sense of ambition that will help them for years to come. That is why scouting increases the sense of self-esteem and decreases the risk of depressions.

8. Spacious Mind

As scouting includes befriending with different people, it allows children to learn opinions that may differ from their own, to become more tolerant, open-minded and to cross the line of a comfort zone. All these helps young people to approach the world in a healthier, less aggressive, more accepting way.

9. Conflict Resolution

Any scouting troop consists of peers who have to learn how to solve problems between one another themselves. That is why scouting is considered to be a great way in providing a child with healthy conflict-resolving skills. Also, scouting helps young people to understand the basics of friendship free of emotional dependency.

10. Teamwork

The ability to work in a team is one of the most required skills when it comes to adulthood. So scouting is one of the easiest ways to teach a child valuable teamwork skills. Furthermore, scouting helps young people to understand the basics of respect towards each other and to learn the basics of effective communication.