ManKind Project

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This article discusses the non-profit organization. For the children's publishing company, see Miles Kelly Publishing.
Mankind Project
Company type501(c)(3)
IndustryPersonal development
GenreMotivation, Men's Movement
Founded1984,
Illinois, United States[1][1]
FounderRich Tosi[2]
Bill Kauth[3]
Ron Herring
HeadquartersNew York City, New York[4]
Key people
Don Jones, past "internal chairman"[5]
ProductsPersonal development, Motivational training
RevenueUSD$Unknown
USD$Unknown
USD$Unknown
OwnerNon-profit
SubsidiariesUnknown
Websitehttp://www.mkp.org/

The ManKind Project (MKP) is a non-profit organization registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3), but with many affiliated Training Centers around the world. The primary training is the "New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA)" undertaken by over 30,000 men in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland [6].

MKP serves as the umbrella organization for 38 interdependent Centers worldwide, which conduct more than one hundred NWTAs and scores of more advanced trainings each year [6].

Among the values MKP promotes are: Accountability & integrity; leadership; emotional literacy; multicultural awareness; and the blessing of elders [7]. MKP has created several additional Leadership Development Trainings and endorses the development of several non-affiliated workshops, including InnerKing, Warriormonk, Vets Journey Home, InsideCircle, and Hollowbones[citation needed].

In addition to this activity, MKP has a variety of other programs to assist incarcerated prisoners, military veterans and young men during adolescence [8].

InsideCircle Foundation has a working relationship the ManKind Project, creating NWTA-type trainings and integration groups inside prison walls.

Rick Ross's "Cult Education Forum"[9] has referred to MKP as an LGAT, although it does not meet the original definition of an LGAT put forward by the APA's 1986 draft NIMPAC report or by Margaret Singer. Although some mental health therapists support attendance at MKP for some clients, it is not necessarily appropriate for those who are "exceedingly fragile or suicidal," "in active drug or alcohol addiction" or "with unresolved sexual abuse issues."[10] MKP attendees are asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and the organization has asked Ross to pull down portions of their training manuals, claiming that publication of such intellectual property violates their copyright to the material. NWTA attendees are told they are welcome to leave during any point of the NWTA three day weekend and any time after that.

New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA)

The New Warrior Training that would later become the NWTA was founded in 1984 by three men: Rich Tosi, a former Marine Corps officer; Bill Kauth, a therapist and member of the "mythopoetic" men's movement; and Ron Herring, Ph.D., a therapist[11]. Designed to compress a large amount of material into less than forty-eight hours, NWTA purports to be a "radical departure" from the modern male psyche. Men who undertake it pass through three phases characteristic to virtually all historic forms of male initiation: Descent, Ordeal and Homecoming. Unlike initiations of old, these passages are navigated internally.

The training is designed to "challenge men to develop their abilities as leaders, fathers, and elders" and to "support men in developing lives of integrity, accountability, and connection to feeling."[12]

Specific details of NWTA trainings are kept confidential by both new initiates, and the initiated men who staff the training.

The initial course costs USD$600, and is attended by approximately 200 participants[4]. The course takes place in a wooded area, over a 48-hour period[13] The weekend is a "male initiation ritual", where the "noise of a man's life" is removed. This includes cell phones and radios, the removal of which is explain by the Mankind Project as a way of separating the man "from what he is comfortable with"[13]. In an interview in the Montreal Mirror, the interviewer asks "Is sleep deprivation a big part of New Warrior weekend training?", however the respondent refuses to go into specifics - citing the group's confidentiality policy[13]. However, he does acknowledge that participants sleep more at home than during training.

Integration Groups (iGroups)

After experiencing the NWTA, men can join an on-going "Integration Group" (iGroup) which provides a place for men to do ongoing personal work by applying the principles learned on the NWTA to their lives.

iGroups are available to all men who complete the NWTA, as well as men who want to explore the ManKind Project. Most iGroups are on weekday evenings and meet weekly.

References

  1. ^ Self-help for women? It’s a scream, January 28, 2006, The Times.
    "I had first heard about Woman Within after meeting two men who had been on Warrior Weekends, run by the international Mankind Project, a men’s self-help group, which was formed in Wisconsin, the US, in 1987 and has spawned 27 centres worldwide. Woman Within is its sister organisation."
  2. ^ Rich Tosi, personal website, "Tosi & Associates"
  3. ^ An Interview with Bill Kauth, 2006, Reid Baer - ("member of The ManKind Project since 1995 and currently edits The New Warrior Journal for The ManKind Project")
  4. ^ a b New 'warriors' bare their souls, Durango Herald, August 21, 2005.
    "For $600, the nonprofit ManKind Project, based in New York City, offers the training weekend with a motto "changing the world one man at a time." Men who cannot afford the fee are welcome anyway, members say."
  5. ^ Editorial, The Archetype of Initiation, Robert L. Moore, Ph.D.
  6. ^ a b Corporate Website, mainpage, Mankind Project.
  7. ^ Corporate Website, values page, Mankind Project.
  8. ^ Corporate Website, missions page, Mankind Project.
  9. ^ "Mankind Project" thread within "Large Group Awareness Training, 'Human Potential' Seminars" accessed 01/17/2007
  10. ^ "New Warrior Training" by Patti Henry, M. Ed., L.P.C. 2005, accessed 01/17/2007.
  11. ^ A 'new masculinity', Susan Williams, 1999.
  12. ^ "People Can Change", promotional website of Richard Wyler, retrieved 1/10/07.
  13. ^ a b c Mankind Project uses mysterious rituals to help heal wounded men, Chris Barry, Montreal Mirror, October 23, 2003.
    How one goes about attaining one's "new masculinity": By forking over between $550 and $750 to attend a New Warrior weekend where men go hang out in the woods with a bunch of other dudes for 48 hours. "Men are invited to participate in a variety of processes and highly experiential exercises that lead them to a place of safety. The weekend is, essentially, a male initiation ritual. All the noise of a man's life, like cell phones and radios, are removed so the man is separated from what he is comfortable with. The man is given the opportunity to take a deep, dark look into himself with the support of the group, and ultimately steps through his fears of going to that place."

External links

Official site
Media/Press mention
Related sites
Non-affiliated workshops
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