For the 2025/26 program year, we’ve decided to do something a bit differently. We’re going to be running our Values branch & Trail Badge concurrently alongside the normal topic of the evening. Doing so will allow us to better deliver the content for the Worthy Life Award, have more breathing room for making up missed steps, plus couple the ideals taught in the Values step alongside other important skills, like those in the Outdoor Skills and Life Skills branches / frontiers.
Worthy Life
The Worthy Life Award requires a Trailman to spend a certain amount of time in a devotional-style bible study. The award requires this to be done with the Trailman’s patrol; however, up till now we’ve made exception to this because our Troop was so new and we we’re still getting a grasp on the requirements of the award.
Teaching the material from the Values branch for Woodlands Trail or a values-frontier Trail Badge will allow our Troop to ensure that every Trailman has an opportunity to be in a direct bible study with his Trail Guide. We’ve recognized that not every Trailman has opportunities to do these studies on their own.
Devotional activities requirements for Worthy Life
| | Fox | Hawk | Mountain Lion | Navigator | Adventurer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devotional Activities | Complete 6 20-min sessions. | Complete 8 30-min sessions. | Complete 10 30-min sessions. | Complete any 1 of the following activities: + An age-appropriate bible study program consisting of ten 1-hour sessions + One elective Trail Badge from the Values frontier + At least two modules of the Manhood Journey program with your father or other male mentor. | Complete any 1 of the following activities: + An age-appropriate bible study program consisting of ten 1-hour sessions + The Band of Brothers group bible study/discipleship program for a minimum of 3 months |
| … |
See this post for full table
More breathing room
Being a Troop that only meets twice a month (sometimes three), it can be difficult to fit everything we need to do into a single year’s calendar. In year’s past, we’ve covered the Woodlands Trail Values branch during a single month (usually January) or so. In a sense, we would only be dedicating patrol time to six branches instead of seven. Removing dedicated meetings for Values will allow us to have the flexibility to:
- Not cover so many steps during campouts
- Create time for a Trailman to makeup missed steps
- Teach all of the values in a single year (rather than just half)
What this looks like in a practical sense
The Woodlands Trail patrol breakout schedule might look something like this (subject to change):
For the Navigators unit, we plan to teach the Bible Basics Trail Badge throughout the first half of the year, allowing Trailmen to earn the badge while working on other Trail Badges.
Teaching Values alongside other skills
One of the features of this new plan that I am most excited about is being able to couple the topics of the Values branches / frontiers (Trail Life USA’s Six Essential Concepts of a Christian Worldview) alongside the other skills we teach.
A good example of this is teaching Edge Tools next to Godly Values (i.e having Godly values means that we are continually sharpening the tools we have to live and work in this world).
To accomplish this, we will be running through all of the Values Branch steps in WT and through the requirements for two values Trail Badges throughout the program year.
Parent Involvement
It’s important that parents be aware of the Values steps being taught and to support their Trailman at home by reinforcing the topics, skills, and concepts taught. This can easily be done by referring to emails sent out by Trail Guides on a weekly basis. How can you implement this within your own family at home?
We’re hopeful that this pilot program will be beneficial to the Trailman and their Trail Guides. This will be purely based off the feedback from Trail Guides. At the end of this year, we’ll make a determination whether we want to continue it or to implement something different.