Rob Murray is looking for charity partners for a Scouts Scotland project which aims to encourage social action

Scouts have always helped other people – after all it’s in our Scout Promise. Scouting already achieves remarkable things.

In 2015, the Scouts launched A Million Hands, a social action programme, giving half a million young people across the UK the support they need to tackle the issues that they care about and to make a positive impact in their communities. The project has been a huge success for our previous partners, with 94% agreeing that their charities involvement in A Million Hands has been a good thing.

One example is the Beavers in East Kilbride who wanted to do something to help their grannies and grandads as part of their A Million Hands project.

As part of their project they held a dementia friendly screening of the Wizard of Oz at their local cinema, including putting up dementia-friendly signage.

The group have also been visiting Memory Lane- a special room within Hairmyers Hospital that helps older people, especially those living with dementia, to feel more at home during their stay. As part of their visits they have been making customised memory boxes, sharing stories and take part in arts and crafts. This helps to break down barriers and stigma and show that there’s more to dementia than a diagnosis.

The Explorers Scouts in Glenrothes are another group who took part, and wanted to learn more about the challenges faced by people with disabilities. Working with Leonard Cheshire they decided to evaluate the accessibility of their local loch. The Explorers, which included some wheelchair users, spent the day going around the loch, to see how difficult it can be to negotiate round a tricky path in a wheelchair.

A recent study showed that on average Scouts will volunteer for 82 hours a year compared to 27 hours a year by non-Scouts. Scouts are 29.1% more likely to take an active role in their communities compared to non-Scouts. Scouts are at the heart of the community but we can do more.

Each week, almost 40,000 Scouts in Scotland get the opportunity to enjoy fun and adventure while developing the skills they need to succeed, skills like teamwork, leadership and resilience.

Scouts Scotland believes in bringing people together and we are now looking to work with new charity partners. How would your charity work with our Scouts to deliver positive, measurable and sustainable difference to the issue that your organisation cares about? We are looking to work with charities who work across the UK, but with a Scottish base, to achieve real social action in our communities.

As Scouts, we believe in preparing young people with skills for life. We encourage our young people to do more, learn more and be more. Our young people want to change the world and we want to work with you to make that happen.

The deadline to apply is 31 August with further information available on our website

Rob Murray is SHQ commissioner for Scouts Scotland