VISION:
Using experiential learning modalities
in Wilderness Education, Adventure Leadership and Empowerment
Arts, we provide youth mentorship and training in compassionate
communication and conflict transformation, to support peace
in ourselves and with others. We co-create a "power with"
culture of acceptance, empathy and empowerment
to nurture fulfilling relationships and sustainable, life-serving
community. In relationship and connection with others, we change
the world exponentially.
GOALS: COmmunity and Mentorship Utilizing Nurturing
Intergenerational Training with Youth (CO.MUNITY) Project starts
in New England with the intention of being accessible for use
by other organizations internationally. Within the CO.MUNITY
organization, with partnership programs and with the youth we
serve, we build a micro-community
based on Marshall Rosenberg's nonviolent compassionate communication
(NVC),
conflict resolution, diversity tolerance and power sharing decision-making.
Training, practice and reinforcement of skills are taught and
modeled using experiential and fun teaching methods like: Adventure
Leadership, Empowerment Arts and Wilderness / Outdoor Education
in the form of games, creative arts exploration, challenges,
play and skill-building initiatives.
The purpose is to work in partnership programs focusing on youth
empowerment, adolescent development, prevention and rites of
passage mentorship for youth ages 12 - 17 like Boys To Men
(BTM),
Hawk
of May (HOM)
and
Girls
Initiate. By working with other youth organizations,
we bring diverse youth together for our Gender Integrated
Skills Training (GIST™).
In a community context like this, it is possible to teach, model
& reinforce new ways of empathy and life-serving communication
to build a culture of celebration and conflict transformation.
From here we can develop leadership skills for social change
action.
We also have empowerment programs for pre-teens, ages 9 - 11
(like Girls
Circle and Hawk
of May Council).
To realize our mission for peace "inside YOUth", we
strongly encourage coming of age youth to begin their training
with us by participating in a recommended rites of passage program.
We affirm that world peace can happen one person at a time,
beginning right here within each of us and between all of us.
In our Western culture, we are starting to reflect on the value
of having more positive and healthy community resources to support
and nurture our children and youth. Rites of passage mentoring
programs are being recognized as potent and meaningful foundations
to create more stable, conscious and responsible young adults
who are then more prepared and skilled at navigating choices
about education, career, marriage and family.
Adolescence happens and youth need to individuate and find their
identity independent of their parents. They will choose their
own “role-models” from among their peers, public
personalities, adults in their life. Youth will mark their transition
from childhood to adulthood by creating their own “rites”
of passage IF THE COMMUNITY DOESN'T PROVIDE IT... They will
mark their bodies, take risks, and sometimes join a “tribe”
of their peers to find their power and identity. Through sexual
behavior, substance use, violence... body tattoos, piercings,
different clothes, new friends... they cast off old activities
of childhood and try to find new ways to relate to the world.
The CO.MUNITY Project strives to provide positive, healthy and
nurturing opportunities for our youth to make choices about
who they are and how they want to live. Though we don't call
ourselves a prevention program, we believe that change happens
internally as well as externally. When youth feel inner self-confidence,
compassion, empowerment and tolerance as well as outer positive
interpersonal relationships, conflict resolution skills and
leadership experience, they are better prepared to make positive
decisions and need-serving actions related to substance abuse,
violence, teen pregnancy etc.
In partnership with youth rites of passage mentorship programs:
We . . .
-
Build
self-efficacy, self empathy and connection
-
Provide
a unique and safe place where boys or girls can interact with
committed, conscientious men or women
- Help
youth discover and develop their individual strengths, talents
and gifts
- Challenge
youth to live lives of responsible need-serving action and
make a meaningful impact in the world
- Teach
boys and girls how to communicate with compassion and to transform
conflicts
-
Affirm that when we accept and love ourselves we can accept
and love others
- Teach
youth how to make conscious and empowered choices
- Nurture
hope, confidence and courage
In Summary: We realize our mission of "World
peace from the inside out: Inside YOUth; In RELATionships; Within
CommUNITY" in a three part program: 1. Youth
Coming of Age & Mentorship, 2. Connection,
Fulfilling Relationships & Community and 3. Social
Change Action...Our mission to find peace inside
youth begins in the rites of passage programs with the addition
of our co-gender skills training GIST™
Together we provide youth with life-serving opportunities for
experiential learning with mentors and peers in an intergenerational
micro-community. Then with our youth action initiative, we develop
leadership skills and practice life-enhancing communication,
empathy, power sharing decision-making and peace building with
the wider community.
Center for programs and training: Turtle
Oak Center is our vision of a central site for training,
rites of passage and education. To meet our goals for creating
a nurturing environment for our program training and events,
we are seeking land that meets our collective needs. We are
currently looking for land-owners who have the vision and interest
in donating, making land use accessible or working with us toward
the purchase of a piece of land. (For more information on our
land acquisition vision and objectives: Turtle
Oak Land ) |
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