Soma Hellinon Proskopon (SHP) is a non-governmental, non-profit and voluntary-based organization, which is led by a National Board of volunteers elected every four years by the General Assembly of Members. There are more than 350 local Scouts groups throughout the country. SHP is a founder member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and with a membership of more than 25.000 boys and girls, men and women, it the largest, oldest and more dynamic youth organisation in Greece.
The national level is responsible for designing and delivering trainings and seminars, hosting international Scout events, developing policies and programs on the topics of volunteering, child protection, sustainability, protection of the environment, democracy education, third age participation, inclusion etc. Our main partners involved in our projects and activities are the Hellenic Youth Council, private companies, public authorities (the General Secretariat of Youth, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture etc.), other foundations and institutions. The regional level is responsible for supporting and monitoring local groups.
Scouting is an Educational Movement. The Mission of Scouting is to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, and to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society. We invest in a process of non-formal education through a specific value system. We help girls and boys become the principal agents of their development as committed, responsible, self-reliant and supportive persons.
Children and young people experience Scouting in teams, each with one team leader. According to their capacities, they decide how to organise their life as members of a team and share their responsibilities. A representational system ensures that members also participate in the decision-making process of their unit, along with their adult leaders.
Scouting empowers young people so that they can develop their full emotional, intellectual, physical, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as citizens, and as members of their local, national, and international communities. The Scout Program, is tailored relative to the needs and aspirations of the different age group it addresses. There are 4 different age sections; Cub Scouts (7-11 years old), Scouts (11-15 years old), Rovers (15-18 years old), Scout Network (18-30 years old). All sections are supported by trained adult leaders.
The Scout Program offers a great variety of activities that take place mainly outdoors, in contact with nature, whether it is on land, sea or in the air.
Through our work we advance the causes of the environment and peace.
For Scouts, the wellbeing of people comes first. We are committed to promoting a developmental model that balances the material, the environmental, the social, and the spiritual.
We promote sustainable development
We are aware of the need to constantly address the issue of our social utility, and are prepared to meet the challenges. Scouting provides original approaches to several of the problems affecting young people today: education, employment, gender equality, participation, and spirituality.
We promote employment, leadership, and participation.
Scouting is all about learning by doing. Scouts do not learn from theory, but from experience and practice. Through activities that include exploration, hiking, sailing and community service, Scouts develop the emotional, intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual skills needed to become leaders and active members of society.
We achieve youth empowerment
Scouting is a school for future managers and leaders and the business world recognizes the added value of Scouting experience, including values such as integrity, loyalty and trust.
We are always engaged in inter-cultural, inter-generational, and inter-religious dialogue.
We use dialogue to cross borders and promote tolerance.
We cross borders through inter-cultural, inter-generational, and inter-religious dialogue. And in doing so, we promote a culture of equality and tolerance. Scouting is about learning to live together: about developing an adherence to the values of democracy, justice and peace; an appreciation of interdependence and teamwork; and an understanding of other people.
Our members are critical thinkers and reflective learners.
We cultivate lifelong values, skills and capabilities.
Scouts make a voluntary commitment to abide by an ethical code of behavior. The principles that rule a Scout’s life can be grouped in three categories: duty to God, duty to others, and duty to self.
The whole educational process within Scouting consists of enabling young people to gradually understand these values, adhere to them, and make them their own so that they permeate their behavior throughout life.
The skills and values acquired as a Scout accompany the individual throughout his or her family, personal and work life.
We are devoted to serving our communities.
We are volunteers.
The Scout Movement offers the possibility to join, to all those who wish to do so, and does not impose any barrier to membership other than the adherence to its fundamental principles.
As a voluntary movement, its members all participate in the decision-making process. As stakeholders, its younger and older, male and female members are all actively involved in managing its affairs in a democratic manner.
As a volunteer movement promoting civic engagement Scouts are devoted to serving their communities and getting them engaged in finding solutions to their problems.
We create lifelong active citizens.
As citizens we use critical thinking and reflective learning to promote dialogue, leadership, and participation in the service of our communities.
From infancy and adolescence to adulthood, the Movement provides its members with the necessary skills and values to participate productively in the development of their communities.
As Scouts, members are involved in decision-making, accepting responsibility and developing cooperation & leadership.
We engage in peace education.
We are a social force that promotes a culture of peace and forms its members to make a constructive contribution to their communities.
