Sammamish Spotlight: Youth to discover diversity, equity and inclusion
Citizenship in Society Merit Badge exemplifies a new Eagle Required Merit badge as of 2022 focused on Scout core tenets. This is one of the requirements for scouts. The road to Eagle Scout requires community service, leadership, skills development and 21 merit badges. Included within those 21 merit badges is Citizenship in society merit badge. The Sammamish merit badge fair includes this new eagle requirement merit badge in a workshop. The workshop date is November 12th. Citizenship in Society Merit Badge represents a new Eagle Required Merit badge as of 2022.
Recently, four Scouts completed this journey to Eagle Scout in Sammamish Troop 695. You can read about their journey on Sammamishscouting.com.
What is Citizenship in Society Merit Badge?
Overview for Scouts
The focus of the Citizenship in Society merit badge is to provide youth with information on diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical leadership. You’ll learn why these qualities are important in society and in Scouting, as well as how to help other people at all times and serve as a leader and an upstander. The Boy Scouts of America continues to be committed to developing a culture in which every youth, volunteer, and employee feels included and welcomed — and to building communities where every person feels respected and valued.
- We…
- welcome families and individuals of all backgrounds and identities to help prepare young people to serve as successful members and leaders of our nation’s increasingly diverse communities.
- are committed to creating inclusive environments and promoting a culture of respect and belonging for all.
- expect all members to be guided by the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
- want everyone who follows the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law to feel welcomed and able to take advantage of the many opportunities Scouting provides, and we want every Scout to feel a sense of acceptance and inclusion in their unit and in Scouting.
- expect and appreciate that our Scouts do their best to make all feel welcomed.
- are learning about and understanding different identities and abilities will help each Scout understand what to do to help make other Scouts feel welcomed and find a sense of belonging in Scouting.
- review the definition of “reverent” in the Scout Law,. We expect our Scouts to “respect the beliefs of others,” both within and outside of Scouting.
What to bring:
A small notebook and pen or pencil
Current requirement
Citizenship in Society
What to wear:
• Class B uniform. The Scout can choose either Class A scout uniform if interested.
Work to complete in advance:
The program is designed to enable Scouts to complete all the requirements of the badge in one day if they complete the pre-work. Scouts who do will receive a signed blue card and be one step closer to eagle.
Questions:
Bill D’Zio scoutmaster695@sammamishscouting.com
Prep work on Requirements
Requirement 1: Before beginning work on other requirements for this merit badge, research the following terms, and think about how they relate to the Scout Oath and Scout Law:
- Identities
- Inclusion
- Diversity
- Discrimination
- Equity
- Ethical Leadership
- Equality
- Upstander
Scout Law & Oath
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
Scout Oath
“On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”
Requirement 2: Document and discuss with your counselor what leadership means to you and what you think it means to make ethical decisions
• Research an individual you feel has demonstrated positive leadership while having to make an ethical decision. Focus on someone in history, a family member, teacher, coach, counselor, clergy member, Scoutmaster, a judge)
• Ask/learn about the decision and/or options that leader had, why they chose their final course of action, and the outcome of that action
Requirement 7 : Identify and interview an individual in your community, school and/or scouting who has had a significant positive impact promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. If you can’t identify such an individual, research a historical figure.
• Discover what inspired the individual, learn about the challenges they faced and share what you feel attributed to their success.
Requirement 8: With the help of your parent or guardian, study an event that had a positive outcome on how society viewed a group of people and made them feel more welcome.
Citizenship in society merit badge other info
Notes:
• Need some research Resources for the Scouts on requirements 7 and 8? Thought starters listed on the Chief Seattle Council website include info for scouts. Citizenship in Society Merit Badge – Chief Seattle Council (seattlebsa.org). These resources are not exhaustive, and intended only to give some “thought starters”.
More About local troop
Also during this same aware ceremony, other scouts from troop 695 and the partner BSA Troop for girls, 8695 received merit badges and rank advancements at the court of honor. Upcoming activities include Veterans Day community service, hiking, Camping, learning knots, orienteering, and Christmas tree recycling. An article on last years tree collection and recycling can be found on the sammamishindependent.com
Scouts BSA Troop 695 for Boys and Scouts BSA Troop 8695 for Girls welcomes families, boys and girls to our programs. For more information to join a youth age 10+ or as an adult to volunteer you reach out on Sammamishscouting.com
