Serving Hispanic American young people isn't new to Scouting. In 1990, when the Boy Scouts of America recognized that the population growth among Hispanic Americans had been increasing at a fast rate since the 1970s, it implemented the Hispanic Emphasis program. That program has evolved into today's Scoutreach Division, whose mission is to recruit strong adult leaders and develop solid relationships with chartered organizations in urban and rural communities nationwide, to help ensure that culturally diverse youth have the opportunity to join Scouting.
Scouting is a family- and neighborhood-based program, with a goal of helping parents with their sons' development of strong values and healthy minds and bodies, and that includes helping your son maintain a sense of Hispanic cultural traditions and identity.
Scouting's family-centered program encourages closeness to family and gives single parents as well as family units the opportunity to participate in activities with their sons that they normally could not do. It provides a positive way for parent and son to grow closer together.
Scouts develop a sense of pride in themselves, their families and their heritage, their communities, and their country. The program can help recent arrivals to our country learn about culture in the United States while maintaining understanding of and pride in their own cultural roots.
Scouting is good support for your son's spiritual growth, through encouraging him to be faithful in his religious duties. He will learn through the religious emblems program, "A Scout Is Reverent," that service to others is paramount.
The Boy Scouts of America is proud to make available to the Scouting community the Spanish versions of the Cub Scout handbooks: Manuales del Tiger Cub, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos. These fun, novela-styled books Spanish handbooks are the latest of nearly 70 BSA resources in Spanish. They are designed to encourage Spanish-speaking parents to learn more about Cub Scouting and to get involved as volunteers in their sons' Cub Scouting program.
We hope that these new resources will support your leadership in serving our nation's Hispanic American/Latino youth.