Why Sea Scouting?

Sea Scouting is a movement of young people. It is one of the world’s longest-established environmental movements, with sustainability and custodianship of the natural world at its core. It has over 4,000 members in communities across Ireland and continues to grow year-on-year. It is part of Scouting Ireland, a registered charity, which is in turn a member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement, a worldwide movement of 50m young people. Sea Scouting is a partner of many organisations in the maritime and community sectors, with strong links to adventure, sport and environmental bodies.

1st Port Sea Scouts traces its origins to the first Scouting activities in Ireland in 1908, with Scouts camping on the sand dunes which were on our current site as early as 1909. It has been registered as a Sea Scout group, operating in Ringsend, since 1912. It is entirely volunteer-led and based on the Pigeon House Road.

<

Impact of Scouting

From being able to find ways to solve a problem to being more likely to forgive themselves if they make a mistake, the Resilience Survey, conducted by Scouts Australia and the University of South Australia found Scouts demonstrate a far wider range of resilient behaviours than their peers. In fact, the findings show that young people participating in Scouting demonstrate higher levels of resilience when compared to their non-Scouting peers. This is consistent across a number of elements of resilience, including Positive Relationships, Social Skills, Understanding Self, Safe, Healthy Mind and Body, Positive Learners, Positive Identity, Positive Values and Positive Contribution. And that’s not all – the Resilience Survey also revealed that Scouts report to have an overall better life satisfaction than their peers, and that the longer they stay in Scouts the more resilient they are likely to be. While these findings aren’t a surprise to Scouts, they provide concrete proof that participating in Scouting gives young people the unique tools to thrive and take on all that life has to offer. Joining the Scouts or Guides in childhood appears to help lower the risk of mental illness in later life, the National Child Development Study (Dibben, Playford and Mitchell 2016) suggested.

Scouting encourages active lifestyles, community development, teamwork, personal development and active participation of young people in decision making. 

It also provides opportunities for volunteering for adults. Volunteerism plays a central role in strengthening people–state relationships. It promotes better governance, helps build more equal and inclusive societies, and fosters social stability (UN State of Volunteering Report 2022).