Miloš Říha

Leveraging the public’s deeply rooted trust in the international Scouting movement, Šípek has developed a new approach to building agency and the confidence to act through formative, values-based experiences that enable more people to step into public life with the confidence, purpose, and skills to create change. He simultaneously changes how the Scouts themselves operate to ensure the organization is fit for purpose for 21st century challenges.

Šípek transforms the Scouting movement into a public civic platform that builds a culture of active citizenship by integrating Scout values into public life and enabling many others – especially those aged 18 to 30 who too many assume are already well-equipped for civic action – to make positive change in their communities. Central to his innovation are three interconnected layers that create new spaces and pathways for Scouts and non-Scouts to engage with and respond to pressing societal issues. The first is the Skautský Institut, a vibrant and open learning space for events and storytelling visited by nearly 250,000 people a year. Šípek founded it in collaboration with Prague Municipality in Old Town Square in 2018. The foundation on which the other two layers of his innovation rest, this new physical civic space cultivates new relationships with and amongst community members and builds more civic consciousness – effectively cultivating more openness in how the Scouts operate. The second layer enables emerging adults, a term Šípek uses to refer to those aged 18-30, to found their own civic hubs (Fóra Skautského institutu, or Forums) across the country based on the Skautský Institut model. These Forums are not franchises but grassroots civic spaces in which emerging adults practice and build confidence in their ability to make change. And the third layer consists of interdisciplinary Labs that connect Scout methods with responses to real-world challenges like climate resilience, education reform, and refugee integration. These Labs bring together Scouts, professionals, and communities to design and test solutions collaboratively. Open sourcing enables scaling and replication of these solutions across the country and beyond the Scouting movement itself.

Šípek’s core insight is that given the scale of social and environmental challenges we collectively face, and given that the Scouting movement’s mission is to leave the world a better place, the Scouts themselves must evolve from a closed, members-only organization to one that enables many more people to contribute for more robust democracy. The Scout’s focus for nearly 120 years on helping children develop values such as integrity and cooperation must now broaden to enable even more to act. This is especially true for those aged 18-30. Šípek argues that society too often assumes these emerging adults have the know-how and confidence to act, even as society does little to build spaces and pathways to enable them to experience agency firsthand and mature as active citizens. His approach fills this gap by creating new ways for emerging adults and others to build their agency and civic consciousness. It also builds a bridge between the Scouts and wider society, which has changed how the Czech Scouts operate and offers proof of concept for changing the Scouts internationally.

By opening Scouting to the public and combining physical civic spaces with action-based programs, Šípek is transforming a 117-year-old international youth movement. Two more Skautský Instituts have since opened in Brno (Czechia’s second largest city) and another part of Prague, and Scout troops from Romania, Georgia, Pakistan, and Norway are exploring how to scale the model to their own contexts. Nearly 15 Forums have now launched across the country. Their success to date has led the Czech Scouts, in an unprecedented shift, to formally adopt Forums as part of their long-term strategy for working with this demographic group. And the Labs are activating thousands of children, teachers, professionals, and sector experts to generate new ways to care for the environment, welcome the displaced, and reform pedagogy and curricula for more student-centered learning. They also highlight how Šípek has activated the potential of the Scouts to contribute to pressing social and environmental challenges. His innovation is turning a trusted movement into a vehicle for building broadly based democratic agency. It offers formative, values-based experiences that empower more people to step into public life with the confidence, purpose, and skills to create change.

Democracy and a strong civil society are built by individuals who believe they can shape the world around them. Yet in the Czech Republic and beyond, this belief is weakening—especially among young adults. They are coming of age in a world shaped by democratic backsliding, climate crisis, and social fragmentation. But instead of being supported in their civic development, they are systematically overlooked. Institutions treat those aged 18–30 as fully formed adults, creating a vacuum of structural support just when identity, purpose, and agency are still being shaped.

This problem is deepened by a formal education system that pays little attention to civic competencies like critical thinking, and by a political culture marked by decades of authoritarian rule. Skepticism toward politics, widespread corruption, and low institutional trust have left many young people aware of societal issues—but unsure how to act.

The effects are visible. In Czechia, 700,000 young people do not vote, and only 25% consider political or civic engagement important—ranking just above wearing branded clothes in terms of perceived value. We are facing a generational paradox: young people care but lack the experiences, mentorship, and real-life spaces to turn intention into action.

And while the needs of young people—and of society—have evolved, the institutions best positioned to respond have not. One of the few platforms with the values, reach, and public trust to support this generation is the Scouting movement. Since their founding in 1908, the Scouts have helped more than 500 million young people across 200+ countries and territories build the skills and confidence to take action and create positive change. The Czech Scouts (Junák – český skaut), launched in 1911, are now the country’s largest youth organization. Membership has reached nearly 80,000, and alumni number around 10 million. Despite such broad appeal, Scouting remains relatively insular. The focus is largely on members aged 7–17 and their parents. And in Czechia, where waiting lists for Scout troops are common, little has been done to expand organizational capacity. Engaging with and spreading Scout values beyond the current membership hasn’t been a priority—despite the pressing challenges communities face. As a result, the Scouts’ impact has been unnecessarily limited, precisely when their expertise in cultivating active citizenship is most needed.

The national Scouting movement has played a significant role in building civic consciousness in Czechia for more than a century. This was especially true during totalitarian rule. After the Nazi occupation in 1938, the Scouts were formally banned and their property confiscated. Many Scouts joined the underground resistance. The communist regime targeted the movement again after 1948; leaders were arrested, imprisoned, or silenced. Even after being officially banned in 1970, the movement continued underground. Although it would not be legally re-established until 1990, respect for its deep civic legitimacy remained widespread.

Šípek enables more people and especially emerging adults to step into their agency and act through a bold reimagining of the Scouts. He does this through the three layers that are at the core of his new approach. Together, they create new pathways for changemaking and transform how the Scouts themselves operate.

First, the Skautský Institut serves as a flagship civic hub that combines physical space and curated public programming to make Scout values like responsibility, cooperation, and service visible and relevant. As such, the Institut sets the conditions by which people of all ages learn more about shared challenges and changemaking. The Institut is housed in an historic building in Prague’s Old Town Square that Šípek saved from commercial development and, in collaboration with Prague Municipality, developed into a shared space for building democratic culture. It operates under the umbrella of the Czech Scouts and functions as an independent non-profit entity. Ensuring the model’s financial sustainability, the Institut also houses a café and co-working space for 30 NGOs that focus on education, civic participation, and systems change. Last year, the Institut ran 2,000 public-facing programs, including those run by more than 300 aligned organizations, and enabled co-creation with communities in twelve cities other than Prague. The diverse audiences that have been engaged include Scouts, emerging adults, those working for NGOs, and others - all numbering more than 20,000. Some 250,000 visit the Institut per year.

It is through this new civic hub’s curated programs and open spaces for enquiry, dialogue, and storytelling about taking action that Scout values are spread. Two other Skautský Instituts have launched since – one also in Prague and the other in Brno, Czechia’s second biggest city. Each are based on the same values-driven architecture and storytelling. These spaces are designed for participation, inviting young people and local communities into meaningful public life. The Institut is having indirect impact, too, by influencing other organizations such as the Catholic Church to adopt similar models for broader engagement. This both raises awareness of social issues and changes mindsets by demonstrating the power of collective action. The Institut's success in creating a "love brand" recognized by 11% of Czech adults highlights its influence in shifting cultural perceptions of Scouting and the universality of its values. Scouting organizations in Romania, Georgia, Norway, and Pakistan have been in conversation with Šípek about adopting the Institut model.

Second, the Fóra Skautského institute, or Forums, represent a decentralized approach to scaling the Institut as a new kind of learning-and-doing space. Forums are not Scout branches but independent, community-based spaces grounded in Scout values with public-facing programs. This strategy enables emerging adults to establish civic hubs, to both catalyze more grassroots participation and augment their own leadership development. By providing a clear framework for young adults to create and manage these Forums, Šípek encourages them to take ownership of civic initiatives and learn by doing. The confidence and sense of agency this cultivates enables them to identify as changemakers whose responsibility it is to help build and strengthen democracy. New Forums are expected to host a certain number of curated programs each year, for example, and use a methodology rooted in storytelling, service, and participation. This model has resulted in the establishment of 15 forums across Czechia and Slovakia, with plans for further expansion.

Now with 250-300 active members, the Forums organize 400 events annually for around 180,000 participants in total. The approach embeds democratic values and participatory practices within local communities through emerging adults’ leadership. It also shifts mindsets by demonstrating the potential of youth-led initiatives to drive social change, challenging traditional perceptions of civic engagement as the domain of older generations. In 2022, the Czech Scouts formally recognized the Forums as a new method for engaging emerging adults, marking a crucial shift in the Scouting movement. The model also informs the Czech Scouts’ Strategy 2030.

Changemaker Labs build on inspiration provided by curated programming of the Skautský Institut and Forums. They also illustrate core Scout values of cooperation and caring for others and the environment. These Labs are interdisciplinary initiatives that bring together Scouts, experts, professionals, and community members to co-create and implement solutions to shared social and environmental problems. Each Lab follows the same process: 1) identifying a challenge that matters to the community and reflects Scout values; 2) convening Scout members, relevant experts, community members, and stakeholders; 3) cultivating dialogue, building trust, and collaboratively designing possible solutions to the problem; 4) prototyping of concrete interventions; 5) open sourcing of the outcomes so that others can scale the solutions. The goal of the Labs is always the same: to create an intervention that builds more agency around a specific topic such as conservation or education reform. These Labs best illustrate the seamless cooperation between Scouts and non-Scouts that Šípek has been committed to for more than a decade. In fact, the current head of the Czech Scouts has said that the biggest impact of Šípek’s work is “breaking down bubbles — building bridges between the Scouts and the non-Scouting world.”

Solutions generated by the Labs have since contributed to shifts in environmental conservation and education. A notable example is the Climate & Land Stewardship (or Patronát) Lab, in which children, Scouts, teachers, and landowners work together to protect and care for pieces of land. More than 9,000 children, 200 teachers, 150 landowners, and 50 municipalities are now involved across all 14 of Czechia’s regions. Because children care for a plot of land over time, they witness the effects of their conservation work to highlight the importance of civic action. The Lab has crafted a systemic approach in land management practices and community collaboration through these partnerships. It also shifts mindsets by highlighting the role children play in addressing environmental challenges. Two hundred school classes around the country participate, and the model has now been adopted by 200 Czech Scout troops nationally. Šípek aims to double his partnerships with municipalities to reach even more schools. The fact that the Lab model is now ready for international scaling highlights an inflection point.

Cabinet is another Lab and focusses on education reform. It’s goal is to help teachers shift from exclusively knowledge-based to competency-based education in order to guide their students in building more agency. The success of the Scouts’ own philosophy and approach to working alongside and enabling children informs this work. More than 5,000 students, 200 teachers, and 100 schools have participated in the Lab to date. The method aligns with and advances national curriculum reform and can serve as a model for countries facing similar shifts. The Ministry of Education’s National Pedagogical Institute is now partnering with Šípek to scale the Cabinet Lab approach into the public education system. In the last two years, the program has had a strong emphasis on inclusive education, especially for Ukrainian children. It has been piloted in the Ústecký region, in the country’s northwest, and is also launching in Karlovarský and Moravskoslezský. These are Czechia’s three most structurally disadvantaged regions. Skautský Institut also publishes a newsletter that reaches 1,500 subscribed teachers every month, in which teaching tips and new pedagogical methods for more skills-based learning are shared.

A third Lab focusses on refugee empowerment and launched shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine. It began as a safe space and evolved into a civic hub, highlighting how Scout values can help evolve an initiative from humanitarian response to long-term civic action. Hundreds of volunteers from local communities are acting as changemakers in alliance with those displaced. The Lab is now an independent initiative led by refugees themselves.

By fostering new relationships between Scouts, emerging adults, and various community stakeholders, Šípek's model creates a resilient network that can adapt and thrive over time. Its emphasis on inclusivity and open-source methodologies positions it as a scalable model for civic engagement, capable of inspiring similar efforts beyond Czechia and Slovakia. In fact, Šípek and his colleagues are now focusing on international cooperation and collaboration in the Scouting movement. More detailed measurement of impact to date is also underway. Šípek is partnering with other citizen sector organizations over the next three years to design an impact measurement framework for agency and changemaking competencies. He also plans to enable the founding of at least 12 more Forums and then track their formative impact from the start.

Šípek’s journey is deeply rooted in his formative years spent between Prague and Moravia, where his love for reading and the natural world took root. He remembers how hard his parents worked and was inspired from a young age by their commitment to bettering their lives. He was especially passionate about football and Scouting. But unlike his experiences on the pitch, where hierarchy between coaches and players was the norm, Scouting provided a platform for more egalitarian relationships and personal growth based on self-improvement and mutual trust. Conversations with elder Scouts who endured imprisonment under the communist regime instilled in Šípek a profound commitment to acting courageously. His success as a Scout earned him a position as troop leader when he was just 16, despite the usual minimum age of 18. He would soon start training other new troop leaders and, having discovered a keen interest in social science, led a campaign to activate young people to stand up for a cause they cared about. This included a 5,000-strong initiative focused on writing to government officials about their causes.

Šípek’s skill at values-driven leadership was reinforced during his university studies in sociology and demography. Aged 21, he mobilized citizen input in municipal planning of a major city intersection with the help of some 60 student volunteers. The information gathered was so valuable that a nearby shopping center paid for the survey findings. This success motivated Šípek to leave university and launch his own company, which for the next four years enabled public participation in the planning of third spaces in the city.

Catalyzing civic participation became an integral part of Šípek’s DNA and later informed his transformative work with the Skautský Institut, where he has played a pivotal role in crafting a new long-term strategy centered on innovation, identity, and belonging. He had recognized a systemic gap in the Scouting movement. There was a lack of support for emerging adults. His 'a-ha' moment occurred when he realized that the values and infrastructure of Scouting could be harnessed to address this societal challenge. The insight led him to reimagine the Skautský Institut as a platform for fostering democratic agency, ultimately transforming it into a changemaking hub that engages emerging adults and so many others in creative, collaborative problem-solving across sectors. His repositioning of the Scouting movement as a civic infrastructure accessible to all is cultivating a generation of citizens equipped with the skills, confidence, and identity necessary to actively shape society.