ManKind Project

Mankind Project

Founded	1984, Wisconsin, United States
Founder	Rich Tosi,[1] Bill Kauth[2] Ron Hering
Type	501(c)(3)
Focus	Men's movement
Location	Illinois, United States[3]
Product	Motivational training
Key people	Board Chairmen: David Kaar, ManKind Project International; Robert Powell, MKP-USA
Revenue	$1,938,132 for 2006[4]
Employees	>5
Volunteers	>1000
Slogan	Changing the world, one man at a time. also Men mentoring Men through the passages of their lives
Website	mankindproject.org

ManKind Project (MKP) is a global network of non-profit charitable and educational organizations, with the stated purpose to "support men in leading meaningful lives of integrity, accountability, responsibility, and emotional intelligence."^[5]

The ManKind Project currently has 9 regions: Australia, Canada, French Speaking Europe, German Speaking Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom & Ireland, and the United States. There are also 5 developing regions: Costa Rica, Mexico, the Netherlands, Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland), and Israel. Overall, the ManKind Project has a presence in more than 22 nations.^[6] Each region operates largely independently, elects its own leadership, and conducts training courses that address men's life issues.

As of March 2015, MKP reports that over 54,000 men have participated in their flagship program, the New Warrior Training Adventure.^[7]

History

MKP has its origins in the mythopoetic men's movement of the early 1980s, drawing heavily on the works of Robert Bly, Robert L. Moore, and Douglas Gillette. In 1984, Rich Tosi, a former Marine Corps officer; Bill Kauth, a social worker, therapist, and author; and university professor Ron Hering, Ph.D. (Curriculum Studies); created an experiential weekend for men called the "Wildman Adventure" (later renamed "The New Warrior Training"^[8]). As the popularity of the training grew, they formed a New Warrior Network organization, which would later become The Mankind Project.^[2][9]

New Warrior Training Adventure

A graphic representation of the Hero's Journey.

MKP states:

The New Warrior Training Adventure is a weekend process of initiation and self-examination that is designed to catalyze the development of a healthy and mature masculine self. It is The Hero's Journey of classical literature and myth adapted to our modern culture.^[10]

The weekend is intended as a male initiation ritual. MKP states that those who undertake this journey pass through three phases characteristic to virtually all historic forms of male initiation: descent, ordeal and return. Participants surrender all electronic devices (cell phones, watches, laptops, etc.), weapons (guns, knives, etc.) and jewelry for the weekend. This was explained as way of removing the "noise of a man's life", separating the man "from what he is comfortable with,"^[11] and ensuring the safety of all participants.^[12]

Participants agree to confidentiality of the NWTA processes, to create an experience "uncluttered by expectation" for the next man and to protect the privacy of all participants. MKP encourages participants to freely discuss what they learned about themselves with anyone.

Training courses usually involve 20 to 32 participants, and some 30 to 45 staff. The average cost of the weekend course is $650.^[13] The course usually takes place at a retreat center, over a 48-hour period, with a one-to-one ratio of staff to participants.^[11]

Integration Groups (I-Groups)

MKP co-founder Bill Kauth's 1992 book A Circle of Men: The Original Manual for Men's Support Groups details how groups of men can assemble to help one another emotionally and psychologically.^[14] Men who have completed the NWTA are encouraged to consider joining such a group. An optional "Integration Group" training is offered shortly after each NWTA; a small fee is charged for training expenses (Fees vary by community and format). Some training courses are part of a small integration group on their own with qualified leaders, other training courses take place over an entire weekend and can cost between $100 and $250 depending on lodging, location, and number of men attending (See CoCreative Payment process, not yet written). Scholarships as well as a CCP (CoCreative Payment process) options are often available, making it more accessible to the financially less able.

The "I-Group" is for participants to engage in 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.^[15]

Other training courses

MKP is affiliated with several similar training programs :

• Boys to Men, for adolescent boys^[7]
• Inner King, for "initiating men into sovereign, kingly energy"^[2]
• Inside Circle, for convicts in maximum security prisons^[16]
• Inward Journey, for people of African descent
• Vets Journey Home (formerly "Bamboo Bridge"), for combat zone veterans^[7]
• Warrior Monk, for "men and women who are in a transition phase of life"^[2]
• Woman Within, for women^[7]

Public reception

The ManKind Project has received numerous positive mentions from public figures for both personal benefits and cultural impact. In an article by Pitchfork Magazine in 2013, musician Jim James thanked the ManKind Project for providing a place to “help men feel more OK with all the different sides of being a man.”^[17] Filmmaker David Sampliner partially attributes his transformation in his relationship to masculinity to his NWTA weekend with MKP in his documentary My Own Man.^[18] Actor Wentworth Miller, in an address to the Human Rights Campaign during an event in 2013, describes his involvement with MKP as vital to his coming out process, and his introduction to being part of an accepting community.^[19] In his letter rejecting an invitation to the St Petersburg film festival on grounds that he as a gay man could not support the event while Russian law prohibits homosexuality, Miller signed as a member of the ManKind Project as well as member of the HRC and GLAAD.^[20]

Author and professor of psychology Robert L. Moore has been outspoken in his support of the ManKind Project, particularly in reference to their treatment of modern male initiation practices. In an address to the organization in 1995 in Windsor, Ontario, Moore outlined the importance of male initiation and praised the ManKind Project (then called the New Warrior Network) for renewing and preserving the vital tradition in modern western culture.^[21] In a follow-up address in 2014, after a series of personal travels witnessing global violence, poverty, and injustice Moore thanked the ManKind Project for being “the men that the world has been looking for to model what it means to be a man in the face of this deluge of horror.”^[22] Sam Keen, another noteworthy figure of the mythopoetic men's movement and author of Fire in the Belly, praised the ManKind Project for its core values as "key traits all men must adopt if we are to live in a safe and nurturing world."^[23]

Criticism

Some former MKP members have written negative material about MKP on public blogs and chat lists.^[24]

Anti-cult advocate Rick Ross of the Rick A. Ross Institute was quoted as saying that The ManKind Project appears to use coercive mind-control tactics. These include limiting participants' sleep and diet, cutting them off from the outside world, forcing members to keep secrets, and using intimidation.^[24] In a 2011 review of popular personal development programs, the New Warrior Training Adventure received a score of 5 out of 5 stars in the category of organizational integrity, leader training and upselling practices, and 4 out of 5 in the categories of marketing practices, absence of dogma and transparency, with an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5.^[25]

The MKP organization itself officially opposes any coercive actions by individual member when enrolling workshop participants.^[26] In addition, the ManKind Project has a public Ethics Policy that prohibits exploitative financial, business, therapeutic, or sexual relationships between members and participants of its training courses.^[27]

Wrongful death lawsuit

A 2007 wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a Texas man charged that MKP was responsible for Michael Scinto's suicide.^[24] The parents said that he had struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction in the past. Scinto was a 29-year-old adult who had been clean and sober for a year and a half prior to his attending MKP's New Warrior Training Adventure in July 2005. Two days after Scinto returned from the NWTA retreat, he sought psychiatric help at Ben Taub Hospital. He subsequently began drinking and taking drugs again, and he then committed suicide.^[24] MKP agreed to settle the case on June 4, 2008. The terms of the settlement are not disclosed.^[26]

MKP subsequently instituted mental health screenings by certified professionals to assess the stability of all prospective NWTA workshop participants.^[26] MKP further initiated and still maintains a public anti-suicide program for men, and its emphasis is on emotional honesty and facing one's inner fears with support from other men.^[26]

Notes

External links

• Official website