| Ashland, Oregon Raven Training |
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Raven Training is a weekend adventure for pre-adolescent boys, ages 10
to 12, that takes place in a natural setting, on a beautiful plateau,
about 45 minutes from Ashland, Oregon. Unlike the more serious,
focused, and purposeful right of passage events for older boys on the
edge of manhood, this one is a little sweeter.
For example, one
goal of the Raven Training experience is to affirm and develop a boy’s
emotional literacy through games, adventure, and teaching stories
(including one story which takes the whole weekend to unfold). This
part of the training is built on the idea of a developmental stage
called Feeling Being, by Ba and Josette Luvmour, authors of Optimal Parenting: Using Natural Learning Rhythms to Nurture the Whole Child .
With that concept in mind, the boys are nourished by age appropriate
emotional training and caring mentors who model what men look like when
they enjoy their feelings and each other.
The training also
includes plenty of other adventure camp training that is perfect for
young boys. They learn basic survival skills such as building a fire
with sticks, finding water & food, the art of camouflage, and how
to build a forest shelter. In addition, they do a couple of other
things I think are unique and very helpful for emerging males:
Interconnectedness of Life:
Because boys are becoming aware of their own mortality, they discuss
the interconnectedness of all stages of life. While this occurs in a
variety of ways, in one process the staff men share what it is like to
be living at the various ages that are present on the weekend. This
usually spans the ages of 11 through 75 years of age. That way the boys
get the Big Picture of the male universe.
Your “Genius” Revealed:
Another element I really like is that each Young Raven is partnered up
with a weekend mentor. At the end of the weekend everyone attends a
feast on Sunday afternoon in honor of the boys. At that time, in
addition to hearing the ending of the unfolding weekend-long story,
each mentor shares a story he has been writing about his young weekend
mentee. In front of a huge community of men, younger and older boys,
the story about the boy is told, celebrating him and describing his
“golden essence” (genius) to the gathered males. What a powerful
blessing that moment must be for each of the boys.
 In
my heart I feel the rightness of doing different trainings for boys at
different ages, and I really like the idea of starting with the much
younger boys. That’s how it has been for centuries in tribal cultures.
That way, when it’s time for the more serious initiation of crossing
into manhood, around seventeen, and the men come for the young males in
the darkness of the night, it’s men they trust who spirit them away and
who will be tasked the serious man-making.
The Raven Training is
not advertised because as Peter Young says, “We have no problem finding
boys, we are only limited by the number of adult mentors we can find.”
Given the man-making power of this training, and the impact I know it
has on both men and boys, I wish it was available in every community.
To learn more about Raven Training, contact Pete Young, at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or call: 541.951.7949
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Contact: Bob Watts |
| watsrobhar@aol.com |
0ur goal is to create a model program that
can be replicated on a community level to
help young men throughout the world.
From the beginning we were seeing some incredible,
positive changes in the boys...
Register today and link up with other Boys to Men supporters Worldwide!
