Journeymen

What will my son get out of this?

Every boy gets something. The Rites of Passage Adventure weekend offers numerous activities, each one with a different goal in mind. Certainly he will experience his own strength and we'll help to identify some of his specific gifts. He'll see his own goodness at new levels. He'll get a chance to make new friends who are engaged in the process of growing up. If he chooses to have a mentor, he'll be matched with a safe, mature, man who commits to walk with him for a minimum of one year.

What happens on the weekend?

There are games, activities, discussion circles, challenge events, and celebrations of victory. We'll share the full agenda for the weekend with parents you come with your boy to register. We won't tell the boys the specifics of the agenda since it would dilute the effectiveness of the processes. Integrated into the team & skill building we have opportunities for personal sharing amongst the boys. Often the boys open up their deep issues to find acceptance, witnessing, and support. At the end they are celebrated for their successes and asked to commit to their own path to manhood in a powerful way.

What happens after the weekend?

Any young man who has completed his Passage Adventure Weekend is called a Journeyman. We have ongoing activities every other week that include fun events, social service, and skill building. If your son chooses a mentor then that man will likely be his transport to these bi-monthly events. Journeymen who have been involved consistently for a year can come back as a staff member for future weekends where he'll be challenged to step into leadership.

How old does he have to be?

We accept boys 12 through 17 who are ready to commit to taking this next step into manhood.

What is a mentor?

A mentor is a personal ally and supporter. A mentor is not a teacher or surrogate parent. Some young men think of them as uncles or big brothers. Journeymen screens our volunteers carefully. We're looking for good men who are already successful in their own lives. Then Journeymen shares what we know with our mentors: that young men are already excellent, and that mentors get as much as mentees from their friendships.

The mentoring model followed by the Journeymen program does not automatically assign Mentors to JMen. It is within a group environment that appropriately closer Mentor/JMan relationships are allowed to develop. All Mentors have been subjected to state and national criminal background checks.

Is this a religious outfit?

No. Journeymen has no religious affiliation or religious teachings. Some chapters of Journeymen do operate out of church facilities, but Journeymen supports each boy's individual spiritual tradition and journey. However Journeymen does support values like truth, integrity, and responsibility.

How much is this does this cost?

A boy does not have to do all components of the program, but it is recommended that he do at least the weekend and activities. The Weekend itself costs $300.00 per boy, and there are activity based contributions throughout the program.

Is there any scholarship money?

Yes. No boy will be left behind. For families that need scholarships we can help a lot, although we ask every family to make a minimum contribution.

How can I sponsor another kid to go through?

It's easy and appreciated. Just click on

sponsors to get started.

Can he go even if he has a dad at home?

Absolutely. It really does take a village to raise a child well. Studies show that the more healthy & supportive adults that a boy has, the better his chances for success in life are. Journeymen mentors know that their job is not parenting or teaching. Journeymen Mentors are allies and friends in life.

How is this outfit different from Big Brothers and Big Sisters?

There are hundreds of mentoring programs. Some programs focus on group mentoring by having one adult to many kids, and some focus on making one to one match-ups. BBBS is one of the largest mentoring organizations in the country, and they focus primarily on facilitating one to one mentor matches with children of both genders. Journeymen has three main program components, Rites of Passage, ongoing activities, as well as optional one to one and group mentor match-ups. Primarily Journeymen focuses on the emotional maturity of the boy.

Who Do We Serve?

The simple answer is all boys.

In our weekends and J-groups, Journeymen produces a setting where a boy can have fun, be challenged, and then experience his own hidden anger, sadness, sense of loss, and so forth. Thereafter, he finds personal tools to face them. Newly aware of his habitual responses, he now has a choice to deal with them or not.

We operate on the principle that the pains of growing up serve as our best learning opportunities – our problems offer us gifts. Uncovering our pains leads us to courageously confront and deal with them. An initiate no longer needs to accept the role of victim nor need he project them onto others acting as a bully.

Our experience tells us that our program works best for ages 12 to 17. For our Rites of Passage and Journeyman programs though, a boy should have experienced the onset of puberty and yet retain some of his little boy softness. Too young and he is not ready to reach for manhood; too mature and he does not relate either to the work nor to other initiates.

Our policy is to maintain a healthy balance of boys both rich and poor, normally healthy as well as seriously traumatized. Always we recruit from a broad spectrum. It is essential that Journeymen never be characterized as a place for certain cases.

Our program is for boys; period. Our program is and should be considered a normal part of all boys growing up. Neither those young men who have emerged as “Journeymen” nor we want our program to be thought of as a place for `weirdos.' Those who become Journeymen are proud and thankful of the work they have done and many get their friends to sign up. Parents proudly sign up sons to this fine initiation and all the processes that follow. We impart a sense of honor and want those boys who join us to feel the honor of being selected.

By mixing only a few of hard-core problem boys with a majority of healthy ones sets up situations in which boys from a wide variety of backgrounds can learn from each other. They face what others have to deal with and achieve tolerance and empathy, learn cooperation and team work. There is no better way to gain the insight that all humans face a wide variety of difficulties and all can learn to deal with them with healthy responses.