I am the County Youth Commissioner. I have been in Scouting since I was a Beaver all the way through to being a Young Leader and then a Leader. I was the DYC for Crawley before becoming the County Youth Commissioner, so I’m very passionate about Youth Shaped Scouting! Outside scouts, I am an Event Executive, planning international events, which links well with planning scout events. If you have any questions about Youth Shaped scouting please get in touch!
Matt has been in Scouting since the age of 6, achieving his Queen’s Scout Award in 2010 as a network member.
Matt is responsible for the youth programme in West Sussex and looks after all sections from squirrels to network as well as international scouting and community impact.
He also runs an explorer unit based in Billingshurst, is a Member of the County training team, Scout Show Assessor, Mentor for Scouts of the World Award and technical adviser to both Billingshurst and Worthing Gang Shows
My scouting life has taken me across three counties. Starting as a cub in Kent, moving on to venture scouts in Surrey and finally to West Sussex as an adult where I started as a part time scout leader in Rudgwick where I am still involved as a member of the exec committee.
Outside of scouting I am a member of Littlehampton golf club where I am the senior’s chairman.
I’m also the Volunteer Manager of the National SASU that supports Activity Assessors and Nights Away Advisers, a small team delivering National and Local workshops providing the ongoing learning requirements of these roles. Past roles include being GSL for both 1st Middleton-on-Sea and 10th Chippenham Scout Groups. I hold a B.Sc. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from University of Brighton, a Post-graduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Bristol and a FHEQ Level 4 Certificate in “Substance Misuse- Early Interventions with Young People” from the University of Chichester. I enjoy making both fused glass and copper foiled glass pieces, a hobby inherited from my late wife.
I started Scouting in Petworth & Pulborough as a Beaver and moved up through all the sections before returning to Pulborough Sea Scouts to help re-open the group when it closed, to then running the Districts Network group and running a scout troop in Billingshurst. From here I went onto doing Media and soon found myself at some County events and here we are!
Outside of Scouts my day job focuses around managing IT systems and my hobbies include photography so the County Media role encompasses all of this and allows me to work flexibly around my job!
Any IT or media questions drop me an email!
I was bitten by the International bug through my work, being able to travel to countries that had never been on my bucket list. This drove me to want to build up my international Scouting experience and give a little back to the young people of West Sussex at the same time.
In 2013, I was elated to have been selected for an assistant unit leader role for 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan. This took me to work with Kent Scouts and Girl Guiding in a composite unit, Unit14 – Diver-Sea-Tea. In 2017, I wanted a little more and applied for Unit Leader for one of the two units going to 24th World Scout Jamboree – North America, Unit 67 – The Mustang Martlets was born.
Now through my West Sussex International role I want to enable Scouts and adults to sample Scouting abroad and grow their own International journey.
An explorer, adventurer and TV presenter, Dwayne's been seen in BAFTA nominated Channel 5 series Race to the Pole, on BBC Springwatch, Countryfile, National Geographic and Disney+.
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