The Boy Scouts of America, grappling with a bankruptcy and widespread accusations of sexual abuse, will change its name to Scouting America in an effort to become more inclusive, the organization announced on Tuesday.
The new name will go into effect on Feb. 8, 2025, the organization said, which will be its 115th anniversary.
The renaming is part of a wider rebranding effort by the organization to appeal to girls, as well as a response to longstanding critiques of lack of inclusivity.
“In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone, the organization’s president and chief executive, told The Associated Press.
In February, the Supreme Court cleared the way for a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts settlement involves more than 82,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse.
The organization already dropped the word “boy” from its namesake program in 2018, after announcing plans to admit girls. At that time, the Boy Scouts of America said that girls would be able to earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.
Since then, the organization has admitted 176,000 girls across its programs, and more than 6,000 of them have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement.
In 2020, the organization announced a “diversity and inclusion” merit badge and made earning it a requirement for becoming an Eagle Scout. In 2013, it ended its longstanding policy of barring openly gay youths from activities.
The Boy Scouts of America is based in Texas and was incorporated in 1910. Membership numbers plunged during the pandemic, which added to existing legal, financial and societal issues that the group was facing.
In 2020, the organization said it counted more than two million members. On Tuesday, the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement that it had “more than one million youth, including both men and women.”
