Able Scouts

Articles on Scouting with special needs and disabilities

X: Special Purpose Units

MODULE X: BUILDING MEMBERSHIP WITH SPECIAL PURPOSE UNITS

IN THIS MODULE:

OVERVIEW

One objective of Scouting America is to make sure that every youth has the opportunity to be a Scout.  This means every youth with a special need or disability and it also means offering Scouting to any adult whose disabilities make Scouting interesting and good for them.  This module shows how to accomplish that goal by creating and supporting special purpose units. We are approaching this from the perspective of a district or council level volunteer or professional that seeks to form more than one unit, but this module is still helpful if you only want to form a unit for your own family, friends, or charter partner.

A special purpose Scout unit is a Pack, Troop, Crew, Ship, or Post where most or all of the members have a special need or disability.  While integrating Scouts with special needs or disabilities into a traditional Scout unit is the best situation for many Scouts, it isn’t the best situation for all of them.  In Scouting, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion also means supporting a diverse variety of units; understanding that the members of a unit may share a common need, culture, or interests and their unit may be less diverse than Scouting or America as a whole is.

This module focuses primarily on Shared Disability Special Purpose units, which are described in the next section. Throughout this module, the term “Adult” is used for anyone over 18 years old regardless of their level of functioning.  A “Youth” is someone under 18.  A “Scout” is a person that participates in a Scouting program, regardless of their age, and is used for all of the program levels (Cubs, Scouts BSA, Venturing, Sea Scouts, and Exploring).  So a youth in Scouting can only be a Scout, but an “adult” could be a Scout, a volunteer, a family member, or a caregiver. An “adult Scout” is a person over 18 who participates in a Scouting program just as if he or she was a youth.

TYPES OF UNITS

To explain the different benefits for different kinds of units we need to create some names to discuss them.  Please understand that these aren’t rigid classifications.  A real Scout unit is a unique community and may not fit neatly into a category. 

Traditional – Traditional units serve a group of youth from a local community, using the regular program features of Scouting for their age level.  Scouts with special needs are included in the unit and participate to the maximum extent possible in the same way as any other Scout.  Most Scouts with physical disabilities, and most Scouts with moderate “hidden” or “invisible” special needs[1] can be accommodated in a traditional unit. Adult Scouts are rare in traditional units.

Special Needs Friendly (SNF) – These units have a higher concentration of Scouts with special needs than most units and use most of the regular program features of Scouting for their age level.  The special needs in the unit usually lean toward “hidden” or “invisible” special needs rather than physical or intellectual disabilities. In these units, an extra level of accommodation and support gets built into the unit’s everyday operating methods, but the experience strongly resembles traditional Scouting. For instance, a Cub pack might tone down its pack meetings to address sensory needs, or a troop might address anxiety by holding more day activities and fewer overnights than most troops do. Adult Scouts are also rare in SNF units.

One quirk of SNF units is that they tend to become the way they are in an organic way.  Most of the time they start off with the intent of being traditional units, but some magical combination of good-hearted volunteers and youth with needs find one another and the unit becomes something more. Another way they form is when families have multiple children that they want to be in a unit together, where some children have special needs or disabilities but their siblings do not.

Mixed Disability Special Purpose – (MDSP) – In these units, nearly all of the Scouts have a disability, but they are a mixed bag.  Their disabilities require a significant amount of support from family members, volunteers, and professional caregivers, so the ratio of adult volunteers to Scouts is higher than in a traditional unit.  The upside of this style of unit is that the Scouts can support one another, where one person’s strengths can offset another person’s needs. MDSP units often have a mix of youth and adult Scouts.

Shared Disability Special Purpose (SDSP) – In these units, nearly all of the Scouts share the same type of special need or disability.  Historically, units have been formed for blind, deaf, intellectually disabled, or mobility disabled Scouts, but there isn’t any restriction on what kind of disability can be served.  The details of how the unit does business will be unique to the type of disability it serves. Understand that having a common disability is not the same as having the same underlying diagnosis or medical condition.  As we show in Modules H through S of the Inclusion Toolbox, we group Scouts based on the effect of their condition.  For example, a unit can be for intellectual disability and it doesn’t matter for Scouting purposes if it was the result of traumatic brain injury, Down’s, cerebral palsy, a past high fever episode, autism, or anything else.

The operating advantage of a SDSP unit is that the effort it takes to make accommodations gets spread over more Scouts, which reduces the total workload for the volunteers. The social advantage is the power of community.  It is nice to be with people where you don’t have to explain yourself, because they “get it”.  When you spend a lot of your energy adapting yourself to the larger world and protecting yourself from its harsher elements, having a Scout unit where you can be yourself and have friends like yourself can be a very good thing.

If a SDSP unit serves intellectual disability, the Scouts could be all or mostly adult Scouts.  In that case, Module Y provides more detailed information about getting these members registered, obtaining appropriate youth protection training, and operating such a unit. Module P provides insights for programming.  For other types of disabilities, there might be no adult Scouts in the unit and you can find program support details in the relevant module from Module K to Module S. 

HOW MEMBERSHIP GOALS RELATE TO SPECIAL NEEDS

From the Membership Policy of Scouting America[2]:

“We work to ensure every youth and adult member has the opportunity to join a local unit that aligns with his or her beliefs and with the experience he or she wants within the Scouting community. We teach youth members to be helpful, friendly, courteous and kind to all and to respect those whose beliefs differ from their own.” (underline added).

In general we want to make a mainstream Scouting experience available to all our participants.   For special needs and disabilities, this means allowing them to participate in a traditional unit alongside more ordinary Scouts that do not have special needs, or that have different special needs from their own.  This is similar to the notion of “least restrictive environment” in schooling.  To support this goal, we want every unit and every leader to “be prepared” to serve any kind of youth.

Each Scout should have the opportunity to be in a unit that “fits”, where the Scout can flourish and feel at home.  That could be a special purpose unit.  Not every unit fits every Scout. But there should be a unit available nearby for every Scout.  

You may have heard the phrase “challenge by choice” used for adventure activities, where each Scout has the right to opt out of an experience until they are ready.  By the same logic, we support “inclusion by choice” where each Scout has the right to opt out of being in a traditional unit, and joining a special purpose unit instead.

A membership specialist[3] needs to be able to address needs from a bottom-up perspective and from a from a top-down perspective.  The bottom-up part is helping families who want to join Scouting find an existing Scout unit that fits their needs.  To do that, the membership specialists need to know about the special purpose units that are available in their area, what their specialty is, and how to put people in touch with their unit leaders. When talking to a family, we listen to what they want to accomplish and steer them to traditional, special needs friendly, or special purpose units, whichever is appropriate.

The top-down perspective is also important.  Membership specialists need to know their community and keep an eye out for youth that are underserved for one reason or another. As a practical matter we launch one unit at a time, but strategically, we want to make sure we create a variety of units over time.   In the next section we will point out what kinds of places and programs have concentrations of youth with special needs and disabilities, where a special purpose Scout unit can become another valuable experience for those youth.

CHARTER PARTNERS AND FRIENDS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSE UNITS

In Scouting America, we measure our organizational success primarily by the number of members.   Membership teams, committees, and professionals in Scouting America strive to make sure that every eligible youth has an opportunity to be a Scout.  One part is to create enough units, of the right kinds, to serve all the available youth that want to participate.  Another part is to market Scouting to different communities so all available youth know that opportunities exist for them. The third part is to match up individual families with special needs to units that can address their needs.

In many ways the process for starting a special purpose Scout unit is no different from any other unit.  The biggest difference is in who we approach as potential charter partners.  The kinds of organizations that make good charter partners for a special purpose unit are a different breed.  These types of organizations may not intuitively think of Scouting as a way to enhance their program and they may make assumptions that Scouting will not work for them when it very well could.

Charter partners are not the only thing that matters though. For most of Scouting America’s history we have looked to a charter partner to provide three things to support a unit: (1) a physical location for the unit to meet and store its belongings, (2) a supply of interested adults to serve as leaders of a Scout unit, and (3) access to families with children to be the primary source of unit members.  In the 21st Century we are seeing an increasing number of situations where it takes more than one group to support a unit.  The official charter partner may only be able to provide one of the necessary ingredients, but as membership specialists we can’t ignore the other needs.  So in the discussion that follows we also talk about “friends” who can promote Scouting to potential members and groups that can provide adult leaders even though they don’t have physical facilities to offer.

A professional from the local council will always be involved in the initial chartering, and be part of a group of 2 or 3 people who will visit a prospective chartering institution. When visiting a prospective sponsor for a special purpose unit, one person in the group should be knowledgeable about BOTH the Scouting America programs AND special needs. They should be able to explain how accommodations for those with special needs fit into this particular chartering institution’s program. They should also be able to help with support services.

Traditional recruiting efforts are focused on schools because that is where the kids are.  We use the same logic for special purpose units, where we focus on groups that concentrate potential Scouts with special needs or disabilities.  We also have to remember that we are no longer thinking only about youth as Scouts, but also about appropriate adults as Scouts.

Special Purpose Schools – Historically, states sponsored special schools to teach people with specific types of disabilities like Deaf or blind.  Sometimes they were residential “boarding” schools and not just “day” schools because they served families over a wide area.  Many of those schools still exist, but there are even more special purpose schools these days that are private schools.  These schools usually concentrate on a specific disability class or cluster of special needs.  The executive director or headmaster is usually the point of contact for forming a unit with such a school.

Public School Special and Vocational Education Departments– Public school districts often have legal mandates to educate all children with disabilities in their district. While they do so in the least restrictive environment and most kids are in mainstream classrooms, there are still some youth that need to be taught in a special purpose classroom with a modified curriculum, and those youth are candidates for a special purpose Scout unit.  Most of these classrooms are managed within the special education department and some are managed within the vocational education department. It will likely take multiple phone and email contacts with the school district to track down which campuses these students are at and who on the staff have the relationships with the parents that you need to develop this further. Classroom teachers can be your best supporters and they know who you need to win over.  It is also possible at times to operate a Scouting in School unit, similar to the Scoutreach model. In these units Scouting activities need to be integrated with the educational objectives for the student.

Parent/Family Support Organizations – It is natural for families that share the same challenges to come together to support one another.  It is common for a special purpose school to have a “parent’s auxiliary” group to support the school and one another.  This is similar to a PTA/PTO group.  Public schools will sometimes facilitate parent’s groups for different types of students in the special education department as a way of supporting their students at home. Those groups could be district-wide as opposed to being at one particular campus.  It may be more practical for a Scout council to charter a unit to a parent’s association than to the school proper.  Sometimes, associations will form organically in a city, independent of the schools.  Those groups will typically have some kind of web presence where you can find them and approach them about forming a Scout unit. You want to start with the organization’s officers.

Disability Organizations – Module G of the Inclusion Toolbox has a list of national organizations that support people with special needs and disabilities. They offer a variety of services to their clients to supplement their client’s other educational and medical resources.  Their national organizations are usually organized into chapters on a state or metropolitan level, just like Scouting America is.  They are more likely to be a recruiting ground than a charter partner, and they may be willing to allow Scouting America to reach out to their local membership to see if a special purpose Scout unit is viable.  In addition to the list in Module G, there are many local or regional level disability organizations that operate independently.  There were too many of those to include in Module G, but you can find them on your own with internet research.

Day Activity Programs – These programs go by different names, like adult day care or day habilitation (dayhab), but what they do is provide a daytime program for adults with disabilities.  They can have educational, social, recreational, life skills, or vocational learning aspects.  A Scout unit can support any or all of those aspects.  These programs usually have a facility for their activities but the clients do not live on site.  The lead person for these organizations usually carries the title of Director or Executive Director.

Supportive Housing Organizations (Group Homes) – Supported housing is available to people with disabilities that need help with “instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs)” such as paying bills, preparing food, communicating, housework, scheduling, and keeping appointments.  While historically these facilities served dozens of residents in one location, the current trend is to have homes in ordinary residential neighborhoods with 2 to 4 residents at each location.  Paid attendants live at the facility to assist the residents round the clock.  Large or small, there is a need for residents to have recreation activity.  A Scout unit can be fun and help the residents build independence.  You will need to identify the organization that runs the facilities to see how many residents they serve and how those residents can come together from multiple locations for Scout meetings.

UNITS FOR ADULT SCOUTS

Module Y has more complete information about running units with adult Scouts, but there is one point we need to consider when we are standing up a new unit.  The adults with disabilities that participate as Scouts usually see themselves as adults and not children.  So even if the charter partner and the Scout council expect that the unit will be doing activities that resemble Cub Scouting or Scouts BSA, it might be better to stand it up as a Venture Crew so that the uniforms and rituals feel more mature.  The tradeoff is that members of a Crew don’t have the opportunities to earn badges and ranks that members of a Troop or Pack do. These points need to be discussed between the prospective members, leaders, and families for a new unit.

Revised: September 20, 2025

Authors: Ben Burns, Charles Hulse, Janet Kelly, Eleanor Philips

Editor: Roger B. Tate

[1] There is no comprehensive list of “invisible” special needs, but some examples are dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity, autism, and expressive/receptive communication.

[2] Scouting.org, March 2024

[3] A membership specialist is someone that gives extra attention to building membership and has extra knowledge for getting that done. “Membership specialist” is not a formal Scouting America job title or position code in and of itself. It represents a role in the process that, depending on the organization of the local Scout council, could be assigned to any number of formal positions. It could be either a Scouting professional or a district/council volunteer. 

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