ManKind Project

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

The ManKind Project (MKP) is a worldwide training and support organization for men. MKP is registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) a non-profit organization. MKP states that it promotes: "accountability and integrity; connection to feelings; leadership; fatherhood; and the blessing of elders." [5]

The MKP organization, is comprised of 38 interdependent Centers worldwide, each with its own elected leadership. Each center conducts specialized training courses dealing with life issues for men, as part of the mythopoetic men's movement. More than 40,000 men in the U.S., the U.K.[2], Canada, France, Germany, South Africa[3], Australia[4][5], New Zealand[6], and Ireland have participated to date in its primary training, the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA).[6]

New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA)

The New Warrior Training that would later become the NWTA was founded in 1984 by three men: a former Marine Corps officer named Rich Tosi; Bill Kauth, a therapist and member of the "mythopoetic" men's movement; and therapist Ron Herring, Ph.D.,[7]. 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, internally navigating something similar to Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey". Men who undertake it pass through three phases characteristic to virtually all historic forms of male initiation: descent, ordeal and return.

The course usually takes place in a wooded area, over a 48-hour period[8] with a one-to-one ratio of staff to participants.[9] 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 explained by the Mankind Project as a way of separating the man "from what he is comfortable with," according to an interview in the Montreal Mirror. When the interviewer asks "is sleep deprivation a big part of New Warrior weekend training?", the respondent invokes MKP's confidentiality agreement, but acknowledges that he usually sleeps more at home than during the training.[8]. Confidentiality is similarly invoked by MKP members for all specifics pertaining to the training weekend.

Some trainings have reportedly included as many as 200 men[10]. Trainings usually involve a maximum of 32 or 40 initiates and some 40 to 50 staff.

Integration Groups (I-Groups)

MKP co-founder Bill Kauth's 1992 book A Circle of Men: The Original Manual for Men's Support Groups [ISBN 0312072473] details how groups of men can assemble to help one another emotionally and psychologically. Men who have completed the NWTA are encouraged to consider joining such a group, and often offers an optional "Integration Group" training shortly after each NWTA for $100-$150, with scholarships available.[11] The "I-Group" is for for ongoing personal work and to apply the principles learned on the NWTA to their lives. I-Groups are available to all men who complete the NWTA, and sometimes to men who want to explore the ManKind Project. Many I-Groups meet one evening per week. A typical I-Group meeting includes conversation and sharing in a series of "rounds" that allow each man to be heard.[12]

Other trainings

MKP has created several additional leadership development trainings[13] and endorses the development of several non-affiliated workshops,[14] including:

  • Vets Journey Home (formerly "Bamboo Bridge") for combat zone veterans[7]
  • Inside Circle, to assist convicts in maximum security prisons[8]
  • "Boys to Men" mentoring network for young men during adolescence[9]

MKP "actively partners" with "Women Within International" [10] and some centers have cooperative events involving women.[11]

Criticisms

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."[15] NWTA attendees are told they are welcome to leave during any point of the NWTA weekend and any time after that. MKP explicitly denies that they are a religious group or cult, noting that they have no "single leader or doctrine."[11]

All participants at an NWTA sign a non-disclosure agreement and details are kept confidential, to promote an experience "uncluttered by expectation" and to protect the privacy of participants.[11] The organization has routinely asked Internet sites which post portions of their training manuals, to remove the content, claiming that publication of such intellectual property violates their copyright.

A 2007 lawsuit by the parents of a Houston man asserts that the group essentially practices psycotherapy without a license, blaming him for the death of their son, whose struggles with alcoholism and cocaine addiction ended with his July, 2005 suicide shortly after attending an NWTA weekend.[16]

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. ^ Editorial, The Archetype of Initiation, Robert L. Moore, Ph.D.
  5. ^ Corporate Website, values page, Mankind Project.
  6. ^ Corporate Website, mainpage, Mankind Project.
  7. ^ A 'new masculinity', Susan Williams, 1999.
  8. ^ a b 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."
  9. ^ Roggeman, Mark (Winter 2006). "Oh Man, What Kind of Project Is This?" (PDF). Midwest Outreach. 12 (1). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc.: Pages 8-10. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ 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."
  11. ^ a b c d "The Training", an official MKP FAQ
  12. ^ "Band of Brothers: The men's movement (still) want guys to open their hearts," by Michael Jackman, The Detroit Metro Times, 11/29/2006
  13. ^ Authentic Leadership Trainings, Mankind Project Colorado, accessed 1/23/07.
  14. ^ Corporate Website, missions page, Mankind Project.
  15. ^ "New Warrior Training" by Patti Henry, M. Ed., L.P.C. 2005, accessed 01/17/2007.
  16. ^ Weekend Warriors: The ManKind Project was supposed to make Michael Scinto a better man. Instead, his parents say, it made him a dead one., The Houston Press, Houston, TX, October 4, 2007.

External links

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