012 – Completing Your Scout’s Youth Protection Training Requirements

Hi everyone, Mr. Maloney here for the Cubmaster Minute presented by Pack 457 in Zelienople, PA. With school out for the Holidays and our Scout’s spending more time with Family and friends, it is a great time to work on completing the two youth protection requirements needed for your Scout to earn their next rank. These two requirements are:

• With your parent, guardian, or other caring adult, complete the exercises in the pamphlet entitled How to Protect Your Children From Child Abuse: A Parent’s Guide
• Scouts not working toward their Lion Rank also need to earn the Cyber Chip award for their age OR Earn the Protect Yourself Rules Preview Adventure for their rank.

Both requirements are important parts of the Boy Scouts of America’s comprehensive Youth Protection policies. Some portions of these requirements can be completed in a Den Meeting. However, completing these requirements can generate discussions with your Scout that are best discussed with a parent or guardian first. We want to make sure that your positions and perspectives are reflected in these discussions.

Let’s talk about how to complete these requirements: With your parent, guardian, or other caring adult, complete the exercises in the pamphlet entitled How to Protect Your Children From Child Abuse: A Parent’s Guide:

• Parents should read the Youth Protection pamphlet that is included at the front of your Scout’s Handbook. (An online version is available in the show notes.)
• Discuss the questions at the end of the pamphlet with your Scout. Make sure they understand what the BSA’s policies are regarding youth protection.

Earn the Cyber Chip award for their age OR Earn the Protect Yourself Rules Preview Adventure for their rank:

• The BSA is in the process of phasing out the Cyber Chip award and many of the videos necessary to earn the award are no longer available, so we’re encouraging our Scouts to earn the Protect Yourself Rules adventure.
• There are five requirements as part of the Protect Yourself Rules Adventure:
  • 1. Watch the “Protect Yourself” video lessons for this adventure.
  • 2. Know the six Protect Yourself Rules.
  • 3. Describe what cyberbullying is and identify things you should never tell about yourself to others when online.
  • 4. Describe three ways to get out of a situation with someone who is making you feel unsafe.
  • 5. List five safe adults you could tell if someone has made you feel unsafe.

Now there are a few frequently asked questions about these requirements:

• Does my Scout need to complete these requirements every year? Well, yes your Scout is expected to complete these requirements every year in order to advance in rank. This helps to keep these policies and practices fresh in your and your Scout’s minds.
• My Scout earned their Bobcat this year, do I need to complete these activities again so they can earn their next Rank? No. These requirements only need to be completed once per year. Your Den Leader will mark these requirements as complete for both the Bobcat AND your Scout’s next rank.
• What do I do when my Scout and I have completed these requirements? Once you’ve completed the requirements, you can mark them as completed in Scoutbook (check out the link in the description for a video explaining that process) or you can let me or your Scout’s Den Leader know the requirements are complete.

We at Pack 457, English Lutheran Church (our Charter Organization) and the entire Boy Scouts of America organization take the safety and well-being of our Scouts (and anyone who participates in our program) to be of the utmost importance. Please DO NOT HESITATE to reach out to any other member of the Pack Leadership Team if you have any questions about these policies and how they are applied in our Pack.

Thank you in advance for your help in reinforcing the importance of following our Youth Protection Rules and until next time, stay safe and stay Scouting!