West Lancashire Scouts has urged local businesses, community groups, and politicians to enable them to provide more vital #SkillsForLife by building stronger partnerships during a recent event, ‘Preparing Better Futures’ hosted at Samlesbury Hall, one of the most beautiful historic homes of Lancashire. This event brought together community leaders from businesses, charities, and educational groups across Lancashire to build partnerships to provide better futures for young people in Lancashire.
Teamwork is at the heart of Scouting, we build it in young people, and it takes teams of adults to make it happen. Your support can really make a difference to the work we do in Scouting. Whether it’s meeting spaces, resources, funding, or supporting our volunteers – you’ll be helping us provide skills for life to the next generation.
At heart, Scouting is the fundamental aim of preparing better futures for young people. The Waddecar Scout Activity Centre near Beacon Fell on Preston’s outskirts is a crucial part of this. Waddecar offers a fantastic base for Scouting right in the heart of the Trough of Bowland.
The site began life as a piece of land donated by the Waddecar family 70 years ago. Still, it has gradually grown to a busy and vibrant campsite serving scouts, locally and internationally, as well as other local community groups.
In recent years West Lancashire Scouts have undertaken two intensive phases of development costing more than £1.2 million focused on developing our activity and outdoor pursuit activities and a complete replacement of our utilities and sanitation infrastructure.
Realising our Vision
In our third development phase, we plan to build something which is an investment in the future of Waddecar, preparing it for the next 70 – 100 years. With a capacity of 80 people, 2 large activity halls, catering, storage, and all fully accessible.
Our ambition is to create a great modern space for residential activities, which will serve not only scouting but other organisations in the community also, such as the education sector, commercial businesses, and charities.
West Lancashire Scouts has committed a further £450,000 from its own funds to realise this ambitious project; we welcome support from broader businesses, community groups, and politicians to build strong partnerships to enable us to deliver our aspirations.
West Lancashire Scouts President, Gail Stanley MBE DL JP said: “Such is the pride and commitment of the volunteers in West Lancashire Scouts, that I really admire them.”
“The skills that they develop with young people all help them to be more fulfilled as individuals.”
“What I really enjoy seeing the most is the outdoor life that is encouraged and delivered by Scouts in Lancashire”.
West Lancashire Scouts Trustee, Max Lowe, said: “We are so ambitious about our organisation and our future”.
“We want to invest in Waddecar to make it ready for the next 100 years of Scouting”
If you want to learn more, how can you help us? Pledge your support in the form of financial, access to resources and facilities, access to specialist support, our ambitious Waddecar development, support with promoting Scouting and meeting spaces – Our Ambitions in Preparing Better Futures – West Lancashire Scouts (westlancsscouts.org.uk)