St. Louis Leads the way as Boy Scouts push for inclusivity

Colleen Schrappen
August 19,2024

ST. LOUIS — A national push by the Boy Scouts of America to diversify its ranks has found outsized success here, according to data from the youth organization based in Irving, Texas. More than 21,000 Scouts ages 5 to 20 are enrolled in programs in the Greater St. Louis Area Council, which encompasses 63 counties in Missouri and Illinois. Of that group, almost 4,800 youngsters are African American, a 15% bounce from a year ago and the highest number of Black Scouts among the 272 councils across the United States.

Girls are also making inroads with the Scouts, executives here said.  The St. Louis council includes more than 4,400 girls and young women, the fourth-most behind Houston, Dallas and Lansing, Michigan. 
"Scouting is for everyone. It's not just for one type of community," said Martez Moore, the deputy scout executive with the Greater St. Louis Area Council, which has its offices in the Central West End.

The Boy Scouts of America dates to 1910. Membership peaked near 5 million in the 1970s but has dropped- with an acceleration during the COVID-19 pandemic- to about 1 million. In the past decade, leaders across the U.S. have made a concerted effort to roll out the welcome mat for underrepresented groups. 

In 2013, the nonprofit began allowing gay youths for the first time.  Five years later, elementary-age girls were admitted to the Cub Scouts. The flagship program, Boy Scouting, changed its name to Scouting BSA in 2019 and opened to girls.

The St. Louis council set up a task force last year to focus on gender equality- which Moore credits for almost 20% jump in female participants from July 2023 to last month. The local organization from the top: By hiring more women, it shifted from a 70 to 30 male to female ratio five years ago to an almost split today.

"Girls need to see people that look like them," Moore Said.

That holds for African American youngsters as well.  Moore, who is black, joined the Cub Scouts after a friend invited him to a troop meeting in the late 1980's.

"Then I went camping, and never looked back," he said.

Leaders from St. Louis-area troops visit 1500 schools every fall to introduce their programs to students.  But that can't be where the recruitment ends, Moore said.
The council has partnered with the St. Louis, Hazelwood and East St. Louis school districts.  they offer on-site activities, provide "camperships" to defray costs, and supply uniforms and transportation.
Getting children to try Scouting is the first step; keeping them enrolled is equally important.

"It's the magic behind what we do," Moore said. "The progression you see in kids when they first come and when they leave, it's life-changing."

About 5% of Scouts advance to the highest status, Eagle. The distinction- which requires a monthslong service project and 21 merit badges- expands college scholarship opportunities.

Three years ago, the St. Louis Council launched Operation Eagle Quest to remove barriers to become an Eagle Scout.

Roosevelt Fair-Kincaid, of Cahokia Heights, serves as the outreach director for Operation Eagle Quest and is an executive with the Illini District, which compromises six predominantly Black School districts in the Metro East.

"Illini had not had an Eagle Scout in over 20 years," Fair-Kincaid said. "The ball just kind of got dropped somewhere."
Since the advent of Operation Eagle Quest, two teens from the district have become Eagle Scouts, with seven more youngsters currently in the process of earning that rank.
Next February, the council here, like others across the country, will formally transition to an updated name: from Boy Scouts of America to SCOUTING AMERICA.

The new branding, new website and new business cards all mean the same thing, said Moore, the St. Louis council director.

"Our job is to make sure kids know Scouting is for them," he said.

The local district of Ozark Trailblazers is part of the Greater St. Louis Area Council.