Woodcraft Folk is committed to widening participation in our movement.

Annual Gathering 2016 argreed:

“That Woodcraft Folk will proactively support vulnerable communities by targeting children from these communities for recruitment. This contributed to our commitment in our Bigger and Better plan to ‘reach out to new communities’.

Woodcraft Folk will set up a working group reporting to General Council for this purpose. This group will collate and create resources for groups to tackle discrimination and build inclusive groups. This group will host an on-line forum for members to share challenges and successes, support each other and develop good practice. 

Each group and district will be required to plan how they will increase engagement from vunerable communities. 

Since Annual Gathering we've made Widening Participation our priority and have created the following guidance and resources. Making strides to improve the participation in our movement, making us better known and understoond. All of these resources are available for you to use in your groups to explore this subject, share good practice and increae recruitment in our groups: 

• Woodcraft Folk’s Strategic Plan 2018-2025 prioritises increasing and widening participation
• A Widening Participation report of case studies was shared with groups Autumn 2018
• Widening Participation Facebook group established to share good practice
• Newham District produced a widening participation film which was circulated to the membership
• A Widening Participation report of case studies was shared with groups Autumn 2017
• Input into the New Leader Handbook - online version coming soon!!
• Asking out groups to report on their progress of widening participation as part of the 2018 group registration process
• Development Conference 2018 had an increasing and widening participation theme
• Our Membership badge competition 2019 was launched with a theme based on our strategic aims, encouraging our young members to think about how they would recruit new members from different communities to their group. 

To help you with your own widening participation activities, check out these great resources on our website:

1. Take a look at the case studies in both the 2017 and 2018 Widening Participation reports. If you want to find out more, why not contact the groups details for information. All group contact details are available at woodcraft.org.uk/where
2. You can find a range of schools outreach guidance on the website at: woodcraft.org.uk/resources/schoolsoutreach-guidance
3. Woodcraft Folk seeks to be open and inclusive to all with many groups making slight adjustments to include children with additional needs. For more information watch one of our webinars on inclusion woodcraft.org.uk/resources/inclusion-webinar and our widening participation series woodcraft.org.uk/resources/increasing-and-widening-participation-webinar-series. 
4. Find out more about using social media to support widening participation at the ‘Digital Tools for Growth’ webinar available to watch from Monday 10th December 2018 here on our website. 
5. Make your group more visible in your local community, by using our new publicity materials. To order copies please email info@woodcraft.org.uk