Welcome to Young Mens Tribal Council
We’re a group that meets to discuss issues pertinent to young males in these times. Increasingly we live in a society that tells young males either directly or via implications such things as
- Males / Masculinity are evil
- Stop behaving as a male, if only you could be more feminine
- You’re a rapist in waiting, its only a matter of time
- Its your fault the world is a terrible place, you and “your kind”
- If you want to help, please shut up and step to the side
- You have no right to opinions and a voice because you’re part of the evil Patriarchy
- etc, etc…
These sound harsh, but are only some of the horrible pathologic ideas being spread and fed to our young males as if gospel. To add an additional layer of complication, often our boys are raised in fatherless situations and don’t have role models. Even celebrity role models like baseball players don’t seem what they were long ago with various scandals in the news. As a result our young males are deteriorating in an environment that’s only getting worse. Its a heavy burden being told you’re what’s wrong with the world, no one to look to. What’s worse is the implication that you have no say or right to discuss these frustrations with others. This leads our young men into a deeper hole of despair that they don’t know how to climb out of. This can manifest itself in many ways including
- Video game addiction
- Failure to launch situations
- Self loathing / poor self esteem
- High college dropout rates (currently only 39% of college degrees are awarded to males)
- Self harm
- Isolationism / wayward attitude
- School shootings / incidents
- No interest in working, having a family, raising kids
- etc…
For the first time in our history our sons will be less educated than their fathers. We’re failing our sons and our institutions are failing our sons. If all this is true, what can we do?
At Young Mens Tribal Council we seek to bring together young men roughly 14 – 24 years of age regularly to discuss issues, work exercises, and explore ways to reach our maximum potential. We do this by cultivating a safe environment and exploring topics such as
- Healthy relationships
- Mature masculinity
- Responsibility
- Archetypes and recognizing our shadow sides
- Communication
- Leaving negative narratives behind (slow kid, fat kid, dumb kid…) and creating your own narrative
- Respect
- Sense of community
- Many more…
What is a typical meeting like?
Our meetings comprise only young men and facilitators. After parents drop them off, or they arrive on their own (in the case of older members), everyone will sign in. In the beginning there may be time to grab coffee/tea/cookies if available and exchange pleasantries for a few minutes. Once settled we’ll meet in circle and have an opening meditation or thought for a few minutes. We’ll explain the group rules for any newcomers, then go around the circle introducing ourselves and saying any opening thoughts we have, perhaps reflections on the past meeting. Everyone must speak, even if only “I’m John, I have nothing to add right now”. After the opening round, the facilitator will have exercises or a topic to speak about interactively with the group members. When time is getting near we’ll have one last round to get final thoughts before close. Sometimes there will be homework but nothing too hard. For instance a member might be asked to think about a time or incident where they were so happy or overwhelmed with joy, something they could share for next meeting.