A Safe Scouting Experience

As Canada’s largest youth organization, Scouts Canada places great importance on creating a fun and safe environment for our members. By embedding safety in everything we do, we create a culture of safety supported by comprehensive policies, resources and guidelines for all Scouting activities.

If you have questions about Scouts Canada’s safety policies or have a particular safety issue that you would like to bring to our attention, please contact our Safe Scouting team at safety@scouts.ca or 1-800-339-6643 or +1-613-229-3986.

A CULTURE OF SAFETY

Scouters are required to report incidents to Scouts Canada which helps us make our activities safer and identifies areas of concern.

ScoutSafe is Scouts Canada’s incident reporting app that allows Scouters, parents and youth to report incidents as they happen, enabling the Safe Scouting Team to respond to incidents in a more timely and proactive manner.

By taking measures such as conducting incident reviews and publishing safety tips for our members, we are able to mitigate repeat incidents. View Scouts Canada’s Safety tips

Scouts Canada takes allegations of abuse seriously and always reports them to the relevant authorities.

Specially trained staff at our National Service Centre work with colleagues in law enforcement and child protective services to ensure we keep youth safe. It is our policy to suspend members who are the subject of allegations of abuse and to terminate the membership of any volunteer charged with child abuse.

If you have any concerns about the safety of our activities or youth, you can speak to your Group Commissioner.

If you feel unable to do so contact our Help Centre at 1-888-855-3336 or e-mail the Safe Scouting Team at safety@scouts.ca.

To report or discuss urgent safety or youth protection concerns 1-800-339-6643 (24 hours).

If you do not feel comfortable speaking with Scouts Canada you can contact your local police, child protective services or for concerns about online behaviour or content www.cybertip.ca if a child is at risk call 911.

YOUTH SAFETY

Scouts Canada has comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of youth:

Adults appointed to positions of authority with youth undergo a vetting process which includes; application forms, interviews, police record checks (including vulnerable sector searches), references and youth protection training with Respect in Sport.

When youth take on positions of responsibility in Scouting we have a similar vetting arrangements and the same training.

This process is designed to ensure that Scouters are suitable to occupy a position of trust, and to support this we have a detailed code of conduct as well as our Two Scouter rule which requires for two registered Scouters to be with youth at all times.

Visit our Youth Resources Section to find all of the related forms and additional related resources

Safe Activities

All of Scouts Canada’s volunteers are trained to conduct risk and hazard reviews to ensure youth activities are as safe as possible.

Activities such as camps and outings require approval from a Group Commissioner and for some, parents are asked to sign a consent form. You can read more about this in our Camping and Outdoor Adventures Standards.

All of our activities have a minimum ratio of Scouters to youth, this is usually 1 Scouter to 8 youth, although it may change depending on the nature of the activities, for example; the risk assessment for a hike with Beaver Scouts may determine that the ratio should be 1:5.

As part of Scout Canada’s youth-led program, youth are involved in planning activities and undertaking risk assessments. We believe in youth leadership and helping youth learn how to be safe.

While a Scouter will always be responsible for risk assessments, youth engagement helps us run safer activities; an example of this might be; Cub Scouts identifying hazards on a hill before tobogganing or Scouts preparing for a hike by learning how to check the weather conditions.

Stay Safe Series for Youth

Scouts Canada is committed to creating a fun and safe environment for our members, in and outside of Scouts. The Stay Safe series provides age-appropriate resources to encourage youth safety in every walk of life.