We really like this partnership between car giant Dacia and the Scout Association which aims to encourage young people to try new activities outdoors.

It’s absolutely core to what the Scout movement is about and cleverly builds on Dacia’s reputation as a vehicle you would associate with exploring and adventure.

Dacia is sponsoring a new ‘Adventure Challenge Award’ badge, which requires Scouts to complete 4 outdoor adventure related activities, 2 of which must be new to them. There’s an extensive list of potential outdoor pursuits including hillwalking, horse riding, water ski-ing, paragliding and much more. As well as logging the activities, to achieve the badge, some reflection is required in terms of how you could further develop skills in this area and the environmental impact of doing the activity. So, for example, writing up a few ideas around mitigating skiing’s impact on the environment. Ironically, ditching the car to get there, or perhaps car sharing in a 7 seat Dacia Jogger might be one suggestion! Of course, joining friends and tackling outdoor challenges together can be extremely beneficial in developing one’s communication skills which is another reason we like this so much.

Anything that gets young people (and adult volunteers!) away from technology and computer screens is an absolute win as far as we’re concerned.

Dacia is also putting money into this too, by creating an Adventure Fund so local Scout groups will have some cash to enable young people to get involved in these activities, meaning some young people will have the opportunity to try out activities that they otherwise might never have had the chance to.

This is the best brand partnership we’ve seen all year and we wish the Scout Association, Dacia and the young people up and down the country who will get involved in it every success.