We are pleased to announce that Ian Fletcher has been appointed as District Lead Volunteer with a remit for events.

Ian already has lots of exciting things planned across all sections for the next 12 months. Ian can be contacted at Ian.Fletcher@Blackburnscouts.org.uk

We are pleased to announce that Donna Longworth has been appointed as Blackburn District Volunteer Development Team Lead / Training Manager.

Donna can be contacted Donna.longworth@blackburnscouts.org.uk

Since September, Blackburn District has been without a dedicated District Lead Volunteer, and I have been acting as interim. I'm pleased to let you know that from today, Mark Longworth takes up the role as District Lead Volunteer. 

Mark has been an adult volunteer in Scouts since 2009 where he has achieved a number of successes: opening and sustainably growing St James' Scout Group to just under 60 members in under twelve months, leading and delivering on our County Cubs100 Camp in 2016, and leading an international expedition to Iceland in 2019 to name a few. 

While Blackburn has been growing since face-to-face Scouting returned post-COVID-19, we aren't yet back to our pre-pandemic levels of Scouts and it's clear that particular focus is needed on some key areas if we're going to meet our ambitions for young people in Blackburn. Mark will be in role for twelve months and I have tasked him with three key focus areas to concentrate on in that time;

• Governance & Leadership - ensure that all the Groups have appropriate Lead Volunteers and Trustee Boards in place
• ⁠Safety Assurance & Culture - ensuring that we're always safely delivering on our commitments to young people and volunteers
• ⁠Bringing Blackburn Together - through District events, direct support for all and open communications

Mark will have a number of people supporting him in his new role from across the District, and I know you will add your support to that when the time is right to make sure that Blackburn can thrive and keep providing young people with skills for life. 

You can contact Mark at Mark.Longworth@blackburnscouts.org.uk

As you may know, Abid Saleh has stepped down from the role of Lead Volunteer (District Commissioner), and I have been asked to lead the search for our next inspirational volunteer to lead the District. I would like to express our sincere thanks, on behalf of the District Trustee Board, to Abid for all his hard work and dedication over the last 5 years in the role.

We are asking for nominations, including self-nominations to be made in confidence to me by Friday 20th October 2023. You can download a copy of the volunteer vacancy pack here and the nomination/application form here.

Please consider people right across the District, and even people not currently involved in Scouting who would be committed to our aims. We want to talk to the widest pool of talented volunteers as possible to lead the District through a period of significant change.

If anyone wants to talk about the role please feel free to talk to myself or Chris Taylor.

Scouting across the town is currently suspended until the National Youth Agency readiness level for Blackburn moves to AMBER. The level is currently REd but we hope that will change in the near future.

If you want your child to join Scouting, please follow the links to our Scout Groups across the town to see if your local group has any vacancies.