The reinvention of the Woodcraft Folk

Emerging from the Scouting movement in the 1920s, its founder Leslie Paul was an influential member of the Albemarle Committee in the 1950s. But after that the Woodcraft Folk somewhat lost its way, largely because most other youth organisations had by then embraced the principles on which it had always stood, and often stood alone in the inter-war and post-war period. By 1960, however, it was not clear what was distinctive about it any more.

Now I see that it was the Overall Winner of the National Energy Efficiency Awards 2008, held in December. It also won the Education and Awareness Raising category, while one of its members, George Brooke, 17, was winner of the Young Carbon Champion category. If ever a youth organisation has so dramatically reinvented itself, while not sacrificing its founding principles, then this must be it. George comes from an environmentally conscious family, but his commitment to energy saving broadened and deepened when he got involved with C-Change, the Woodcraft Folk environmental project.