A 1980 reflection on Scouting, service and social change
Mike Downes begins with the Skin Horse’s explanation of becoming real in The Velveteen Rabbit. He connects that story with the uncertainty young people faced at the start of the 1980s: unemployment, inflation, environmental damage, violence and declining trust in public institutions.
He argues that Scouting can help reorganise society through service and shared responsibility. Scouting, he writes, can influence young people and their families at local, national and international levels while standing for the acceptance, rights and dignity of people regardless of colour, country or religion.
By Mike Downes. First published in The Victorian Scout, January-February 1980. Archive copy supplied by Scout Heritage Victoria.
Original archive scans
