Essentially Active Support is a group of adults who wish in some way to provide ‘active support’ to local Scouting.

An Active Support Unit can be made up of men and women of all ages, interests and backgrounds, whether or not they have been involved with Scouting or Guiding before. They can operate at local, national and international levels, but are most often connected to a District or County. All members of Active Support are there because they wish to give some of their time to Scouting – this can be as much or as little as they like, in a wide variety of activities. Each Active Support also has their own social and activity programme.

The aim of Active Support is to “Provide Active Support”, with the emphasis being very much on practical support of the youth programme at all levels of the Association, from the local Scout Group to National level. These may be specialist groups, for example campsite service crews, skilled activity teams, first aid teams or radio operators, or they may be a more general group of individuals with a variety of interests and skills who are ready to help out at all sorts of different events.

Active Support around the country regularly gets involved in event organisation and support, adventurous activity provision, fundraising, supporting Section Leaders, providing social activities for Districts and Counties, skills based sessions and training. In fact ‘active support’ can be just about anything, the list is endless.

Active Support is a large part of the “backbone” of the Scout Movement – supporting the young people and voluntary leaders wherever help is required. The key to our success is our flexibility – we’re here to help.

At Penistone, we have two active support units:

Falcons Active Support Unit – Alumni of past leaders of Penistone Scouts who provide ad hoc support with our local premises, occasional event support and maintaining the group’s archives – quite a task given we formed in 1910!

Penistone Events Active Support Unit – As a large group, putting on events and overnight stays, it’s a challenge our Active Support members make far more manageable. From supporting logistics, providing a catering team, supporting our leader team and being an army of fundraisers, they make a big difference keeping the wheels on!