First Parish Stoughton has sponsored a Navigator’s Scouts program from September 2021- June 2022.  Chapter 314 meets twice a month and focuses on Junior Navigators: recommended for youth ages 7-11. Through games, crafts, excursions to museums, nature walks and camping, children build camaraderie, character and a basic understanding of the world and cultures around them.

Chapter 314’s activities have included:

• Helping make meals for the MainSpring House, along with other community service activities.
• A rock pigment program where they learned about ancient cave art, how to make pigments and use different binders, and apply their pigments to beautiful cave art inspired paintings. 
• A Stone Soup gathering at a member’s local farm where children and parents gathered to make a collective soup, cutting up vegetables to add to the outdoor pot bubbling over a camp fire. 

Navigators USA was founded in 2003 by a group of volunteers who had previously led Boy Scout Troop 103 in East Harlem, New York City. The first Troop started in a homeless shelter, an outreach program of All Souls Unitarian Church. There was a need for a more inclusive scouting experience than what was being offered at the time.

Navigators USA, provides that all-gender, secular, non-discriminating scouting experience. The Navigators USA mission is to provide a place where parents, other volunteers, and professional counselors use nature and adventure activities to teach kids how to work well together as a group to achieve goals and build self-esteem.

The Navigators USA programs help children learn how to create a world free of prejudice and ignorance, to treat people of every race, creed, lifestyle and ability with dignity and respect, to strengthen their bodies and improve their minds to reach their full potential and to protect our planet and preserve our freedom. 

For more information about Navigators Chapter 314 in Stoughton, MA, email: chapter314leaders@navigatorsusa.org