The Scout Association has launched a campaign to encourage half a million scouts to provide more volunteering services to other charities.

The campaign, called A Million Hands, aims to enlist Scouts to work with some of the UK’s biggest charities, including Mind, Alzheimer’s Society, WaterAid, Guide Dogs, Leonard Cheshire Disability, and The Canal and River Trust, over the next three years.

The chartities were chosen by young Scouts themselves to reflect the four issues that they care about most:

• Improving the lives of those affected by dementia;
•  Improving the lives of those disabled by society;
• Improving the mental wellbeing and resilience of families;
• Ensuring everyone everywhere has access to clean water and sanitation.

Jack Abrey, chair of the Scout Association’s Community Impact Group, said the campaign was a “chance to remove the wholly unfair negative perception of young people”.

“It’s a way to demonstrate that Scouts can create meaningful and impactful change in their communities in a way that also develops the young people taking part, giving them the confidence, resilience and belief that change is possible,” he said. 

Research released alongside the campaign claims the UK is losing out on 15.4m hours of youth volunteering time every month, because young people lack the opportunity to get involved.

Of 1,000 young people questioned between the ages of 12 and 24, 73 per cent said that they were willing to help tackle social issues in their local communities if the opportunity existed.

Some 45 per cent said they thought adults would feel their help was worthwhile - but 41 per cent said they were not encouraged to do so.

Just a third of all respondents – or 37 per cent - volunteered every week.