Requirement
5. Explain advocacy, then do ONE of the following
Required Often forgotten
ONE COMPULSORY EXPLANATION AND THEN THREE ROUTES, and neither half is what it looks like. The line above the menu is work everybody does, and the three routes below it run from eight hours of volunteering to twenty pieces of research followed by a presentation to a booked audience.
Notes and warnings
Warning. THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THIS REQUIREMENT IS A REQUIREMENT, NOT A HEADING. "Explain what advocacy is" applies to everybody, whichever of the three routes follows, and by the fifth requirement of a badge the eye has learned that the line above a list can be skipped. AND THE THREE ROUTES ARE NOT THE SIZES THEY LOOK. 5(c) reads like an evening of internet research, and it is ten myths AND the facts behind each, which is twenty pieces of research, followed by sharing the list with your counselor, followed, in its very last clause, by a presentation to a Cub Scout pack or other group. So two of the three routes end in front of an audience, and the one that appears to be desk work is the largest of the three. If standing in front of a group is not for you, 5(b) is the only route, and it costs eight hours.
What this is made of
Where this step comes from
- Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge Requirements (Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2025-09-19), Requirement 5 · The requirement asks you to explain what advocacy is, and then to do ONE of the three lettered parts.