Woodcraft Folk
 |
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| Founded | 1925 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Leslie Paul |
| Type | Charity in England and Wales (1148195) in Scotland (SC039791) and Company Limited by Guarantee (08133727) |
| Focus | Environmentalism, Internationalism, Children's Rights, Cooperation and Peace |
| Location |
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| Origins | Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, Scouting and Cooperative movement |
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Area served
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United Kingdom |
| Method | Popular education and Scouting |
|
Members
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c. 25,000 |
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Key people
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Chair of General Council: Pat Hunter General Secretary: Jon Nott |
| Slogan | Education for Social Change; Span the World with Friendship |
| Website | www.woodcraft.org.uk |
| Member of International Falcon Movement - Socialist Education International | |
Woodcraft Folk is a UK-based educational movement for children and young people. Founded in 1925 and grown by volunteers, it has been a registered charity since 1965 and a registered company limited by guarantee since 2012. The constitutional object of this youth organisation is "to educate and empower young people to be able to participate actively in society, improving their lives and others' through active citizenship."
The name 'Woodcraft' was used by the influential writer and naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton at the turn of the 20th century when setting up the American proto-Scouting organisation Woodcraft Indians, and in this context meant the skill of living in the open air, close to nature. Seton later influenced Robert Baden-Powell and became Chief Scout of the USA. John Hargrave admired Seton's work and aimed to revert to it and away from Baden-Powell's influence in founding the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift. Another pro-Seton breakaway Scout group was the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, founded slightly earlier in 1916.
Whilst sharing many of the same historical roots as the Scouting movement, Woodcraft Folk's direct antecedent was the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, an organisation led by ex-Scout Commissioner for Woodcraft and Camping John Hargrave, who had broken with what he considered to be the Scouts' militaristic approach in the years immediately after the First World War. Woodcraft Folk was established by Leslie Paul in 1925 after the south London co-operative groups challenged Hargrave's authoritarian tendencies over his refusal to recognise a local group called "The Brockley Thing" and broke away from the Kindred. In its early days it was very similar to the Kibbo Kift, with a strong pagan and anti-capitalist emphasis, but gradually developed its own distinct ethos. In the 1920s and 1930s it had close ties to the Co-operative Societies and to the labour, pacifist, early feminist and trade union movements, which provided a base for recruiting both adults and children and a practical focus which avoided it sharing the fates of the Kibbo Kift and Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, which both became increasingly eccentric and esoteric and were both moribund by the 1950s.
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Wikipedia