Good afternoon everyone, I have been privileged to speak to you today about "helping other people". It took me a while to think of what I could possibly share with this audience, as helping others is an inbuilt part of every scout, and as a movement we have been helping other people for 106 years. so I decided to use some inspiration from some young people, and asked the, what they thought it meant to help other people. Some of the ideas included:
Forming friendships
Never leaving anyone behind
Looking after people
Supporting during hardships
Learning life skills
Teaching them things
Setting an example
Doesn't matter who it is for you can help anyone
It can be anything
Rich or poor, everyone needs a helping hand
Being a scout
From this, we prioritised and came up with three things which we felt were key lessons in helping others, which I will share with you now using examples from my own personal experiences.
Part of my life is spent as a youth worker, and where I live, in a small place called Gosport, I work for a small youth work charity. As part of my job, I am responsible for the youth club for young people with additional needs. I have a team of volunteers, which includes some young people - Max, Sophie, and Becky.
Two years ago, we were told our youth club would have to close and that our youth centre was going to be knocked down. Now, as I am sure you can imagine, this is far from ideal and it caused some upset with myself and others in the community. Max, Sophie, and Becky took the lead and spent time working with myself, and other local decision makers, including councillors and the residents association, to work a way forward. By working as a team, the youth centre was saved, and invested into.
Becky coordinated the repainting of the building, Max took control of purchasing new equipment with a grant he had secured, and Sophie led a consultation process with local young people to commission a new group from the building. After several months of hard work, we held a grand opening of the youth centre and invited the local community to come in as well as all young people. It was a great success and thanks to these three young people we still have a youth club to stand in.
The beauty of this is that they didn't even know that they were helping other people, they just wanted to do some good in their community, and as a result of this innate desire to do good, they helped secure provision for a group of young people and their work is a legacy to every young person who walks through the doors of that building for years to come. Three young people had a feeling in their heart and they followed it.
Lesson one is that: The desire to help other people is within our human nature, and you may not even know you are doing it.
This summer, I was fortunate enough to attend the world scout moot in Canada. I spent 10 days living with an international patrol, an experience which I will never forget. The moot provided a space for 2500 young adults to come together, live together, and learn together. One of the main challenges of an international event like a moot, is the language and communication barrier that is encountered. This is also combined with cultural differences and sometimes a lack of understanding of each other.
However, there seems to be a kind of language and understanding that comes with wearing a scarf, and scouts all seem to get involved and take part, using differences as an opportunity to learn and challenges as opportunities to grow. Everyone at the moot knew how to put up a tent, and so when one needed to be put up it would be all hands in together - irrespective of nationality or language.
This was my first experience of a moot, and being a participant I was supported by a team of volunteers who enabled the moot to happen - the international service team. Like us, they too had to work out a way to work together and come to understand each other. However, despite these barriers, the IST were able to provide an excellent experience for us as participants.
Whenever you needed help. They were there.
There was a web of people all skilled in their respective areas and all working together to help make the moot what it was. We had a unit leader, Guillherme, from Brazil. Guillherme would visit us each day and make sure we knew where to go and at what time. We had IST working in cafes who were helping us to learn about diversity and humanity. We had IST who were serving us breakfast, and handing out ice lollies. All of our needs were catered for by a team of people who had never met each other before.
The IST received the biggest applause at the closing ceremony, because of their gracious and conscious decisions to give up work for ten days and come to help at the world scout moot, and therefore empower the next generation of leaders to come together and grow as responsible young citizens. By helping at this event, they have input their time into shaping a generation of people who are ambassadors of a peaceful world, because of the experiences they have shared.
Lesson two is that: helping others is an international language, and it's easy to communicate through action.
Now, the third lesson about helping others is based on the principle of random acts of kindness. Have you ever given up your seat for someone on a bus, or held a lift door for someone? Have you given someone 20p for the ticket machine, or helped a neighbour carry their shopping? Have you smiled at a stranger, or given someone a hug? These are the small things in life which can happen every day, and these are the things which anyone can do.
The beauty of this is that it doesn't cost you anything to give, and it leaves a warm fuzzy feeling for those who give a random act of kindness, as well as for those who receive it. On friday i was at a camp in Hampshire, and a scout offered to carry my tent for me. he had nothing to gain, and nothing to lose.
You have nothing to lose by smiling at a stranger, and if they pass on the smile then eventually we could make the world smile too.
Lesson three is: when you help someone else it doesn't have to be big.
So today we have been on a journey to reflect about helping other people, and with our three key lessons - helping is human nature, helping is international, and helping can be anything.
As you leave here today and go into your daily lives and routines over the next few weeks, I would like you to look for an opportunity to help someone, and make it a selfless act of kindness. If someone asks you if they could borrow money for a cup of tea and they say to you "I'll pay you back", my challenge for you is to tell that person to "pay it forward" instead, and for them to buy a cup of tea for someone else who needs it.
If we all take some responsibility for helping, then we can make the world a better place, and indeed leave the world a little better than we found it.
