Guides and Scouts of Europe, UK is an observer member of UIGSE (Union of International Guides and Scouts of Europe). We apply the pedagogy of UIGSE-FSE and contribute to the religious, moral, civic and physical education of youth by using the scout method, according to Lord Baden Powell’s spirit, with a Christian dimension.

• We want to be, beside school, complementary to the family, which is the primary educator of their children.
• Educate man and woman in all their dimensions: body, spirit, soul. 
• Give a fundamental importance to religious education and spiritual life.
• Look after the personal education of each one, the formation of social man and future citizen.
• Encourage the young boy/girl to take in charge his/her own education in a context, appropriated to their needs and strengths.

The five goals of European scouting are:

1. Development of good physical health.
2. The sense of concrete things.
3. The education of character.
4. The sense of service.
5. Sense of God.

The first four points aim at building a physically solid man or woman, with a strong character, devoted to serve his or her brothers and technically able. The supreme aim of scout education is the fifth point: to meet Christ personally and, through Him, to reach the Father.

History

European scouting began in the year 1956. After the devastation of World War 2, when Europe was divided again between east and west, thirty young people, Catholics, protestants and orthodox, gathered in Cologne. They were aware that Europe’s contemporary nations were refusing God, idolising race and nationality, and tending to subject faith to the country’s interests, and to the general will or to the reason of State led to the worst follies and to the division of Europe. The sense of the common good had been lost. To them, it was urgent to place God back in the centre of a European project. Therefore, they founded the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d’Europe-Federation of European Scouting (UIGSE-FSE), an international brotherhood the primary purpose of which is to educate youth by practising scouting.

The European Scouting method is based on the original Baden Powell scouting, as implemented in French catholic parishes by the Venerable Fr Sevin in the 1920s. Today, the UIGSE-FSE is an ecumenical movement, recognised by the Holy See as an association of Catholic lay faithful. Its 65,000 members throughout the world, in 22 countries, are mostly organised as Catholic groups (98%), with a small minority of Protestant and Orthodox groups.

Vera Barclay was the first Akela. She founded the first Wolf Cub pack in 1915 in London. Together with Baden Powell, she developed the whole pedagogy of Wolf Cub and Wolvets. She wrote several training books on the Yellow Branch which are still used today by the Akela.

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Guides and Scouts of Europe – UK

Guides and Scouts of Europe, UK, part of UIGSE-FSE (Federation of European scouting) was established in the year 2021. The organisation is beginning its activities with Wolf Cub groups in Bedfordshire and Tyne and Wear and aims to expand to other parts of the UK and to a wider age range. Within a year, Guides and Scouts of Europe, UK aims to become an observer member of UIGSE-FSE.