Los Padres Council Scouting America

The clichéd image of a random Boy Scout helping grandma across the street to earn points toward a merit badge is a thing of the past with the reinvigorated launch of Scouting America – a new identity that reflects the organization’s commitment to inclusivity and welcoming all youth, including girls, into its programs. 

“We’re all inclusive and safety is now our top priority,” said Carlos Cortez, CEO and Scout Executive of the Los Padres Council (LPC), the regional nonprofit that operates Scouting America in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. “We’ve opened our doors and our arms to welcome everyone and are making a full effort to make sure that every youth and every family feels included in everything we’re trying to do.”

What hasn’t changed is the Scouting commitment to service and personal development for the young members of our community, instilling a moral code, and giving kids at an early age the resources that will allow them to excel.

“The value base still very much resonates,” Cortez said. “We matter because we’re giving young people ages 5-18 all the tools and support necessary for them to become leaders of our community and our country with the good moral values to make ethical decisions; to believe in something that’s greater than themselves, to make sure that they engage in giving back.”

Of course scouts helping out around the neighborhood and community is just the beginning. 

“We’re so much more than that now,” Cortez said. “It’s about being proactive and learning new skills – both life skills and educational career skills – to give access to the tools needed to make the right decisions that’s right for them in terms of self-growth and becoming a leader. At the end of the day, we just want every kid to become the best version of themselves.”

To that end, LPC offers a number of programs for children of all ages, one of the biggest being its Outdoor School. Located at Rancho Alegre on the San Marcos Pass, the Outdoor School offers fifth and sixth graders an experience of nature, a reprieve from electronics and their normal activities, and a connection to the environment, themselves and each other. The four-day, three-night program guides students in extending their curriculum from textbooks to the enriching outdoor classroom. 

The current academic year saw the first cohort of sixth grade attendees since 2017, when the Whittier Fire tore through the 350-acre site, destroying everything in its path. 

“It’s a service to local school districts to fulfill the state mandate of having environmental education for every kid in the school district,” Cortez explained. “We just finished the phase one rebuild of the camp and are able to service up to about 2,000 to 2,500 kids per year. It’s so exciting to have them back again. We had 1,300 sixth graders in the spring, and we expect another 800 to come in the fall.” 

Phase one included the dormitories and staff housing needed to operate the upper school, with phase two slated to rebuild the extra educational buildings, the nature center, the medical lodge, and other elements that enhance the activities in the program.

There’s a new state-of-the-art mountain bike trail, courtesy of Trek, who also donated a number of bicycles so every kid at camp can ride one – maybe for the first time. 

“A lot of them from more disadvantaged communities don’t know how to ride a bike, so we give them all the guidance they need to get started,” Cortez said. “More experienced riders get to enjoy a trail that was made to be sustainable.” 

The LPC still seeks an additional $3 million to finish all the construction, as well as rebuild its swimming pool, Cortez said.

“The goal is to start a program where we help kids get experience of water safety, if not actually swimming, so that at least they’re conscious about the dangers that water can bring.”

The Outdoor School is an integral program for LPC because it’s often the inaugural entry point for youth being introduced to both scouting and nature, Cortez said. 

“There are a lot of kids in Santa Barbara County who’ve never been to a forested area. Having this first experience at 11 or 12 years of age is paramount both for their health and to help them become engaged and start talking about how to be more environmentally conscious and responsible,” he said. “It also allows us to instill some of those basic scout values in these kids. They’re only with us for several days but they keep hearing about being trustworthy, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful and thrifty. In the short time, we teach them some basic life skills that include self-reliance, how to be stewards of nature in their community, and the responsibility they have to give back. It’s a big part of our core mission.” 

Although Scouting America is a nationwide organization, the LPC is responsible for its own board, raising its funds, and using those funds to deliver experiences and activities that deliver that mission to the young people in its two counties. The organization has the commitment to support under-represented and/or underserved youth so they can participate no matter what their financial limitations are. 

“With a staff of just six people, we serve about 5,000 kids yearly through all our programs, and contribute about 10,000 service hours to the local community,” Cortez said.  

Visit https://lospadresscouting.org for more info.