FOR many of us the idea of Scouting conjures up a very specific set of images.

Shorts, knee socks, bearded elders teaching the finer arts of fire-making and whittling with a knife.

This, however, is a perception that is now starting to rapidly shift. A new, young generation of Scouts are tech savvy, community minded, and eager to dispel the long-held view Scouting was a boys-only club.

On a breezy July evening close to 100 boys and girls of varying ages were lined up on the Walney shoreline waiting to take part in a long-standing Scouting tradition - a wide game.

This event saw scout troops from across Furness assemble partly as a team-building exercise, but also to form friendships and enjoy a barbecue on the beach.

Susie Faulkner, 26, is the newly appointed district commissioner for Scouting in the south west Lakes.

She is emblematic of the shift which has taken place within the Scouting community since the 1990s.

After a downturn in membership during the 1980s, numbers once again began to rise. Driven by a younger leadership the Scouts is being turned into a force which has the power to positively influence the communities they inhabit.

Miss Faulkner said: "It's about changing a mindset about what Scouting is. I think that's why I was chosen to be in this role, I'm young and female - we can go out and have adventures and be involved in Scouting. There are still older people involved but for me it is not about age, but about mindset."

Since 2009 the role of chief Scout has been filled by renowned explorer, survivalist and former SAS soldier, Bear Grylls.

When appointed Grylls was the youngest person to ever take up this role, aged just 34. His tenure has seen the waiting list of children wanting to take up Scouting grow to record levels.

This is something which Miss Faulkner has seen in her short time at the helm in south Cumbria.

She said: "We are always looking for help, but help comes from different places really. You can help out with a group or there are other ways, I'm looking for someone to help build a website for me. One thing I'm trying to encourage is flexible volunteering, sharing a role with someone else."

Miss Faulkner said if anyone is interested in helping out with Scouting, email dc.swlakes@cumbriascouts.org.uk to register their interest.

The Scouting census for south Cumbria this year showed there has been a year on year increase of 20 per cent in the number of adults volunteering with the Scouts.

In the south west district, this figure was even higher at 38 per cent.

Brian Caine, of the Xenolith Explorer Scout Unit in Ulverston, was incredibly happy with these figures.

He said: "This is great news, as Scouting has been suffering from lack of leaders for a number of years; this increase has meant a number of new sections have been re-established, helping to reduce waiting lists of young people."

While the Scouts are naturally facing forwards as the 21st century progresses, the core ideology of being outward bound remains at the heart of the movement.

Miss Faulkner said: "It's important we don't lose the traditional reasons why we're here. We could go too far the other way and be too modern, far from what (Robert) Baden-Powell set out to achieve."

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Scouting - A national picture

THE interest in scouting has not just been felt in Cumbria but across the rest of the UK.

The waiting list is higher than ever for youngsters to join their local scout troop, but a shortage of adult volunteers is holding up that process.

Latest figures from the scout's national census show there are 51,000 people waiting to join.

In the past two years the number of girls joining the organisation has almost doubled to almost 7,000, four times the number of boys who joined up - 1,400.

Girls and women now make up more than one in five members of the organisation, a change which has been reflected by the most high-profile members of the association.

In 2013, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge started volunteering with her local group, resulting in a huge upswing in female involvement.

While this is a positive step for the movement, it has been estimated around 17,000 adult volunteers would be needed to enable everyone on the waiting list to join.

To learn more about how you can get involved with scouting in Cumbria, visit www.cumbriascouts.org.uk.