Creating Men
Programs for Fathers
Father to Father: This workshop brings together "experienced" fathers (those with grown children) with fathers who have younger children. The workshop is designed to initiate an ongoing group that meets both as a group and in mentoring pairs. We will learn to share our successes, mistakes, hopes and disappointments with each other and learn to reflect on our parenting experience. Drawing from old stories, modern research and our own life experience we will explore the joys and challenges of being a father.
The Role of Fathers: What is unique in the father's relationship to his child? How can a working father develop and maintain connection with the family? What is different about a father's role in a daughter's or son's life? What old archetypes live deep in our psyche? What are the current expectations on a father? In this fathers only workshop we work to define healthy ways of being a father and how we can stay connected and support our children through the successive stages of their lives.
Fathers Circle: This is an ongoing program designed to create a group of fathers who will work together to support each other and each other's children throughout childhood and adolescence. Using a combination of practical skill building, service work and outdoor experience, the ideal is to create an atmosphere that can support a proper coming of age/rite of passage in the teen years. This is particularly important for boys and can be coordinated with mothers to support daughters as well. Fathers are encouraged to reach out to boys in their community who don't have fathers and include them in the circle.
Rites of Passage: This is an advanced workshop for fathers groups who are ready to lead boys in rites of passage. This crucial stage of adolescent development was well recognized in traditional cultures and its importance is being rediscovered. In the workshop we will look at traditional practices and seek to understand the experiences they were trying to create and how these facilitated this transition. We will then work to apply these ideas as we look at the specific group of boys the fathers are working with and endeavor to create the particular challenges necessary to guide them into manhood.
Father to Father: This workshop brings together "experienced" fathers (those with grown children) with fathers who have younger children. The workshop is designed to initiate an ongoing group that meets both as a group and in mentoring pairs. We will learn to share our successes, mistakes, hopes and disappointments with each other and learn to reflect on our parenting experience. Drawing from old stories, modern research and our own life experience we will explore the joys and challenges of being a father.
The Role of Fathers: What is unique in the father's relationship to his child? How can a working father develop and maintain connection with the family? What is different about a father's role in a daughter's or son's life? What old archetypes live deep in our psyche? What are the current expectations on a father? In this fathers only workshop we work to define healthy ways of being a father and how we can stay connected and support our children through the successive stages of their lives.
Fathers Circle: This is an ongoing program designed to create a group of fathers who will work together to support each other and each other's children throughout childhood and adolescence. Using a combination of practical skill building, service work and outdoor experience, the ideal is to create an atmosphere that can support a proper coming of age/rite of passage in the teen years. This is particularly important for boys and can be coordinated with mothers to support daughters as well. Fathers are encouraged to reach out to boys in their community who don't have fathers and include them in the circle.
Rites of Passage: This is an advanced workshop for fathers groups who are ready to lead boys in rites of passage. This crucial stage of adolescent development was well recognized in traditional cultures and its importance is being rediscovered. In the workshop we will look at traditional practices and seek to understand the experiences they were trying to create and how these facilitated this transition. We will then work to apply these ideas as we look at the specific group of boys the fathers are working with and endeavor to create the particular challenges necessary to guide them into manhood.