Adult & Youth Training

Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO)

This one-and-a-half day course is designed as an introduction to the Cub Scout outdoor program for leaders interested in adding a camping component to their Pack activities. Baloo training consists of an online pre-requisite component in addition to an overnight hands on practical. BSA’s Cub Scout level camping policies will be taught along with the discovery of the necessary tools to help units carry our a successful camping experience. Completion of this course is mandatory for a minimum of one adult on a Pack overnighter.

Leave No Trace

Instilling values in young people and preparing them to make moral and ethical choices throughout their lifetime is the mission of the Boy Scouts of America. Leave No Trace helps reinforce that mission, and reminds us to respect the rights of other users of the outdoors as well as future generations. Appreciation for our natural environment and a knowledge of the interrelationships of nature bolster our respect and reverence toward the environment and nature. Leave No Trace is an awareness and an attitude rather than a set of rules. It applies in your backyard or local park as much as in the backcountry. We should all practice Leave No Trace in our thinking and actions–wherever we go.

National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT)

National Youth Leadership Training is an exciting, action-packed program designed for councils to provide youth members with leadership skills and experience they can use in their home troops and in other situations demanding leadership of self and others.

The NYLT course centers around the concepts of what a leader must be, what a leader must know, and what a leader must do. The key elements are then taught with a clear focus on how to. The skills come alive during the week as the patrol goes on a Quest for the Meaning of Leadership.

NYLT is a six-day course. Content is delivered in a troop and patrol outdoor setting with an emphasis on immediate application of learning in a fun environment. Interconnecting concepts and work processes are introduced early, built upon, and aided by the use of memory aids, which allows participants to understand and employ the leadership skills much faster.

Oak Leaf

Oak Leaf is an in-person course which combines Scoutmaster Basic Training and Introduction to Outdoor Leaders Skills. Working as patrols, you will learn the role of the Scoutmaster and the practical outdoor skills needed to lead Scouts in the out-of-doors. Upon completion, leaders should feel comfortable teaching Scouts the basic skills required to obtain the First Class rank. All Scoutmasters and Assistant Scoutmasters are required to attend this training.  Committee Chairs and Committee members are encouraged and welcome to attend. Webelos Leaders may take this training and then will be considered trained when they cross over with their scouts to a Scout BSA Troop. (Prior to crossing over into Scouts BSA, to take a Webelos or Arrow of Light Den camping requires BALOO training.)

Okpik Cold Weather Camping

The Okpik Program will provide you with the knowledge and materials to conduct winter camping training within your units. This program covers the skills and techniques needed to ensure a successful, fun and safe cold weather camping experience include physical first aid, emergency procedures, shelter building, traveling in snow and making equipment.

Outdoor Ethics

Scouting has a long and distinguished tradition of conservation leadership and environmental protection, enshrined in the Outdoor Code, Scouting’s Wilderness Policy, the William T. Hornaday Awards program, and in innumerable publications and training. Leave No Trace offers a cutting edge approach to integrating Scouting’s ethical and decision making focus into the outdoors environment, providing Scouting members with a principled framework to assist in arriving at proper, ethical decisions in the outdoors. These practices apply to all outdoor activities, including those at Scout camps, camporees, and on all types of public or private lands.

Trainer’s Edge

The purpose of the Trainer’s Edge course is to provide and help develop the platform skills of a trainer. It is meant to supplement the practice offered through such programs as Wood Badge and NYLT staff development, with a focus on the participant, while raising the level of skill a trainer brings to the staff experience. Only practice can polish these skills; this course is intended to “train the trainer” on behaviors and resources while offering hands-on experience in methods and media. Face masks are required for this training.

Wilderness First Aid

Wilderness first aid is a generic term that commonly refers to any training course that covers the prevention and treatment of injuries and illnesses that one may encounter in a remote environment. Many providers offer wilderness first aid courses, but not all courses are created equal—they vary in content, duration, accreditation, and other factors.

Being prepared in Scouting often means being ready to render first aid. As we go farther into the backcountry with our units, some additional training is needed. Wilderness first aid (WFA), the next step up from the basic first aid, focuses on teaching assessment skills and using available resources when professional responders may be hours or even days away. It can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of emergencies, injuries, and illnesses. It can mean the difference between life and death.

Wood Badge

Why do some units seem to run more smoothly than others? Why do some teams seem to manage change more effectively than others? Why do some people seem to have the ability to navigate the challenges of a busy schedule without breaking a sweat?

It is not an inherent quality that makes these units, teams, or people effective or efficient. Rather, it is leadership: whether at the personal, team, or organizational level, an individual with a vision; the ability to communicate it clearly; the willingness to let others contribute to it; and the drive to make a plan and work it provide advantages to the organizations, teams, and home to which that person belongs.

If that is the impact you want to have on your Scout unit, on your District Committee, on your work culture, in your faith community, then Wood Badge is where you learn, develop, and hone the skills that make you that leader. Why do we offer Wood Badge?

  • To build stronger Scout units. You will make your Scouting unit – your children’s unit – stronger.
  • To learn the What and Why of Scouting. You will gain a deeper understanding of what Scouting is and why we do it.
  • To gain experience. You will learn and experience things that will stay with you in Scouting and for the rest of your life.
  • To help other groups. You will make other organizations you belong to – PTA, Church, work teams, your family – stronger and better able to execute their vision.
  • To have fun. In Scouting, our youth discover themselves and their values through fun, challenging, life-changing experiences while developing relationships that will last a lifetime. Wood Badge is your turn to do the same and capture that fire.

Wood Badge is an immersive course in Scouting Aims and Methods coupled with learning about leadership and team development skills in an active, outdoor environment, with the goal of enabling adults to provide a quality program that will enable their youth to grow to their greatest potential.

Youth Protection

Required Training

  • Youth Protection training is required for all BSA registered volunteers and is a joining requirement.
  • Youth Protection training must be taken every two years. If a volunteer’s Youth Protection training record is not current at the time of recharter, the volunteer will not be re-registered.
  • Watch the Understanding Youth Protection Video

New to Scouting? Click here to login and take Youth Protection training. You do not have to be a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America to take Youth Protection training. To take Youth Protection training go to My.Scouting.org and create an account. You’ll receive an email notification with your account information, including a member ID/reference number.

From the My.Scouting.org portal, click Menu then My Dashboard from the menu list. The My Training page displays to take Youth Protection training. Upon completion, you may print a training certificate to submit with a volunteer application. Your training will automatically be updated in our system and associated with the member ID/reference number issued when you created the account.

When your volunteer application is approved, you will receive a BSA membership card that includes your member ID number.

The Boy Scouts of America places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for our youth members. To maintain such an environment, the BSA developed numerous procedural and leadership selection policies and provides parents and leaders with resources for the Cub Scout, Scouts BSA, and Venturing programs.