I’m late to this thread, but we’re local to you. Recent scouts have done projects at an elementary school in Fairfax, a preschool, and local swim club. Our sponsoring organization also has project availability even for those who aren’t members of that church. My son is a life scout and I’ve asked in passing the park director at Lake Accotink and Winkler Botanical Reserve if they work with scouts and both said yes and are eager for scouts to partner with them. Scheduling an informational interview will give him an idea of what the park or organization needs so he can design his project around it.

I don’t think you are going to be able to access a DV shelter for your project. One of my GS tried to do that for her silver award, her mom was a vetted volunteer with them, and they didn’t want the daughter to know the location.

If he’s interested in working with a shelter there is a family homeless shelter in Alexandria that would be a great partner.

If he’s interested in working with animals, instead of contacting the shelters, he might have better luck contacting a rescue. They also have a ton of needs and no government funding. Prince George’s County is a breed restricted county, no bully breeds, so the rescues looking to rehome pitties are always overwhelmed. Maybe there is a synergy there.

Good luck!

My son also had some similar challenges. Our town (not in the DMV) is notoriously difficult for getting any projects approved. He had better luck with a park in the county system, so make sure he is checking with those as well.

From watching him and others I also think it seems to go better when the scout has an idea of the organization to make a connection with but the scout should also have a lot of flexibility when it comes to the project idea. The organization is the expert on what they really need, so an offer for doing X when they really need Y may not be prioritized as highly.

Some other ideas of places to contact:
Schools (pre schools or private may have a less arduous process)
your community
YMCA
Lions Club or similar
Food or diaper bank (not to do a drive but to do another project to support)

What need does he see in the community/world that he wants to help with?

What skills does he have? Carpentry/construction, computer software, etc? Does he like working with people, animals, or objects? What are his hobbies?

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue

https://www.lostdogrescue.org/

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I just wanted to thank everyone here for their support, advice and ideas. I'm so glad that I posted here and I'm immensely grateful for all of the help and understanding. It really means a lot to me. I'm a single parent (his dad is deceased) and I'm trying to navigate all of this together with him. We really do not have much support, but I am feeling more confident to support my son after reading all of your messages. Thank you again so much!

You’ve got this! Try and contact the Lighthouse Shelter in Annapolis or the Ronald McDonald house in Baltimore if he would like to focus on shelters. They both have coordinators who are well versed in service hours and keep a list of service needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son did his project with the Oyster Recovery Project by doing a day of service making oyster cages and helping them be distributed in the community.
https://www.oysterrecovery.org/

You can also try Montgomery county parks which have an actual process in place:

https://montgomeryparks.org/support/volunteer/eagle-scout-candidate/

Catoctin Parks:

https://www.nps.gov/cato/getinvolved/eagle-scout-projects-and-opportunities.htm

My daughter completed the Silver Award for Girl Scouts which isn't even the highest award, and she had to do a minimum of 50 hours on her project. It is very surprising to me that someone can earn Eagle Scout with a day of service.

He coordinated the day, held a fundraiser for the materials and they hauled the cages to the location where they were going to be used.

Definitely not a day of service. Hours of coordination, labor and smelling like oysters.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I just wanted to thank everyone here for their support, advice and ideas. I'm so glad that I posted here and I'm immensely grateful for all of the help and understanding. It really means a lot to me. I'm a single parent (his dad is deceased) and I'm trying to navigate all of this together with him. We really do not have much support, but I am feeling more confident to support my son after reading all of your messages. Thank you again so much!

OP - please reach out again if you need additional support. As a mom and scout leader I appreciate what you're doing for your son, and if we can help you to help him, that would be great.

Op here. I just wanted to thank everyone here for their support, advice and ideas. I'm so glad that I posted here and I'm immensely grateful for all of the help and understanding. It really means a lot to me. I'm a single parent (his dad is deceased) and I'm trying to navigate all of this together with him. We really do not have much support, but I am feeling more confident to support my son after reading all of your messages. Thank you again so much!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son did his project with the Oyster Recovery Project by doing a day of service making oyster cages and helping them be distributed in the community.
https://www.oysterrecovery.org/

You can also try Montgomery county parks which have an actual process in place:

https://montgomeryparks.org/support/volunteer/eagle-scout-candidate/

Catoctin Parks:

https://www.nps.gov/cato/getinvolved/eagle-scout-projects-and-opportunities.htm

My daughter completed the Silver Award for Girl Scouts which isn't even the highest award, and she had to do a minimum of 50 hours on her project. It is very surprising to me that someone can earn Eagle Scout with a day of service.

The event might be one day but there is time planning, time fund raising, time getting volunteers, and the like. You also count the hours of everyone who volunteered, not just your own. Some of the places with ideas for Scouts can cut down on that time. I know that the blood drive Eagle is not always accepted by Districts because the project is pretty much handed to the Scout and there is not a lot of additional work to do. The Scout who completed one in our Troop had to do more then just a blood drive to satisfy the District.

You don’t have to build something but the project is supposed to be a Scout idea and Scout lead all the way through. We have had Scouts set up tutoring programs at ES, the Scout provided supplies and taught a cohort of classmates to be tutors after working with the Teachers to identify were the ES students needed help. We had a Scout revive the Science Fair at a local ES. There are plenty of non-building options out there.

Anonymous wrote:My son did his project with the Oyster Recovery Project by doing a day of service making oyster cages and helping them be distributed in the community.
https://www.oysterrecovery.org/

You can also try Montgomery county parks which have an actual process in place:

https://montgomeryparks.org/support/volunteer/eagle-scout-candidate/

Catoctin Parks:

https://www.nps.gov/cato/getinvolved/eagle-scout-projects-and-opportunities.htm

My daughter completed the Silver Award for Girl Scouts which isn't even the highest award, and she had to do a minimum of 50 hours on her project. It is very surprising to me that someone can earn Eagle Scout with a day of service.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your troop needs to have some kind of list of organizations that are willing to take on Eagle Projects. DS' troop had that. We also aren't part of a church. One of the orgs on the list was a nonprofit nature center that DS did some work for.

Unfortunately, his troop did not provide us with any of these options.

I was going to say - his troop should have a leader whose primary job is to work with the scouts who are pursuing Eagle (Eagle Coach). We have one (plus a couple unofficially) who act as sounding boards, review project proposals before they're presented to the troop committe, and brainstorm how to best pursue and execute the project. For OP, the troop's chartering organization may have projects they want done. Or is there an activity he's already involved in that might need something? Our scouts have worked with their schools, our chartering organization, community organizations, and extracurricular activities to fulfill needs. I might would recommend that if he wants to pursue the project with the animal shelter, that he narrow the scope. Do the dog beds or the donation bin, not both, and drop the supply/food drive. Organizations may be scared off if it looks like he's trying to do too much. A smaller, but focused and well-executed effort is better than a larger one. The goal is to show that he can lead a project that helps the community; it doesn't need to be over the top. In Fairfax, the county nature centers have been supportive of projects (bat boxes and flying squirrel boxes are two projects I'm aware of) as are church-based food pantries (not for food drives, but for items like storage shelves). Community garden groups may want help with building raised beds or other projects; Hands on Harvest in NoVA is one.

Anonymous wrote:I thought you had to build something for an Eagle scout project.

Your local rec leagues might need something--benches? tables?

No, that's a common misperception. The point of the project is leading it - can be something built, but doesn't need to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Food banks are happy to have kids run a food drive for them. City of Rockville public works always has a list of projects for Eagle Scouts. Maybe you town has one too. Surprised his troop is not given suggestions.

An Eagle Scout project is much more robust than organizing a food drive.

My son as in HS 2015-2018 and they were very accceptable then. Food drives, book drives, eye glass drives. We saw them all. I am not sure why construction would be considered a requirement. A drive requires very similar leadership skills IMO. My neighbors son did a food drive and the organization said it was the largest drive donation they had ever gotten. My son was involved in packing and driving and unloading. Other kids passed out fliers, collected the food sorted it per the orgs preferences. This was not just a kid picking a couple of cans out of his moms basement.

Because planning and running a drive is not that challenging. There is a reason that they had been a go to project for so many Scouts. My Scout is First Class and organized a book drive to collect books for a local ES as part of his Librarian Role. He spent maybe 8 hours total and collected close to 200 books. He found an ES, made a flier, had other Scouts help distribute the flier, had other Scouts help pick up books, and sorted the books. If the project is doable by a 12 year old First Class Scout then it is not really an Eagle Project. That is why our District has said that drives need to be a part of a larger project.

Different Districts may accept a drive but they are falling out of favor in many places.

8:hours and 200 books is definitely not an eagle projects. Drives can be much larger ..

I’ve seen someone construct and install “little libraries” around their town. Perhaps something like that could work?

When my son was looking for a project, we were told to avoid anything with our local public school system as beneficiary. It takes close to a year to get all the necessary approvals. Also, anything that one might consider "routine maintenance" will not be approved: painting, making repairs, etc., even if the beneficiary does not have the funds to do the work themselves.

I wish you luck. Several times my son commented that he was amazed how few people wanted help.

Is there an area in your neighborhood that he could beautify and install birdhouses? Create free neighborhood garden plots? Build raised gardening boxes at a local nursing home? Build a gazebo or walking path with flowers at a local nursing home?

You want to think small and local. A franchised location will have too much red tape. My best advice is to find a very small, locally-owned beneficiary with one contact person who can give final approval and present his idea in person with preliminary sketches, a time frame, and a budget-- while assuring the beneficiary that he will be handling all fundraising.