Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Youth Wilderness Quest

June 12, 2021 - June 20, 2021

Registration for this 9-day program is open to students at Sonoma Academy.  Contact Rites of Passage to learn how to bring this transformative event to your school or youth group.

This is a classic coming of age Wilderness Quest program in the tradition of Rites of Passage, which has offered youth quests since our beginning in 1977. Since the dawn of humanity, young people have felt a need to undertake meaningful rites of passage as they approach adulthood. Lacking the opportunity to engage in positive initiatory experiences, youth may instead make attempts at self-initiation, which often fail to bring increased maturity and self-responsibility. Since our inception 30 years ago, Rites of Passage has offered the opportunity for youth to confirm and celebrate their entry into adulthood. The increased self-knowledge and self-respect that result from participation in a youth rite of passage can have a positive effect that lasts a lifetime.

Parental permission is required for participation of anyone under age 18. Both parents and young people are encouraged to contact us with any questions or concerns.

I am writing you this to thank you for the experience I was able to have of the Wilderness Quest and tell you, after a year, how much it changed my life. I have had almost a year to see the change inside me that has developed since returning from my time of threshold in California. It has given me so much more confidence and perspective in the way I treat myself and others.
–John, age 18.

Staff

Dashielle Vawter is a Coach, Singer/Songwriter, Minister, Vision Quest and Mountain Guide. After a profound heart opening/spiritual awakening in 2008 she jumped off the nonprofit path, took on a personal spiritual practice and began exploring what it meant to lead with her heart. It’s been a wild ride through political campaigns, teaching art to kids, working on a local food documentary, studying Earth-based ways of prayer with the Center for Sacred Studies, starting and stopping grad school, running a backpacking company, living a semi-nomadic life for several years, and much more.  Dashielle currently directs the outdoor education programs at a high school in Dallas, Texas.

Daniel Francis is a regenerative designer, educator, rites-of-passage guide, culture-repair coyote, storyteller, fly fisherman, musician and tracker. Daniel hails from the Santa Ana River Watershed, 5 generations deep. He has dedicated the past 20 years to designing and installing regenerative community gardens, orchards, farms and residential homes with a focus on dry-lands water harvesting. Finding transformational and powerful ways to engage youth and community to create ecological awareness, empowerment to redesign, individual and community healing, and bridging the social and environmental issues of our time have been his ultimate design challenge and vocational calling. Over the past 4 years he has focused his attention on deeply studying pan cultural rites-of-passage guide work, and  running life changing wilderness intensive programs for both youth and adults in Southern California.

Rites of Passage encourages youth participation in our programs. Programs offered exclusively for youth, from the four day Earth Walk to the nine-day Wilderness Quest, can be arranged with schools, church groups and similar organizations. Youth may also register for any open program listed on our schedule. Our work is appropriate for adolescents who are capable of taking care of themselves and seek a meaningful challenge to test themselves as they grow toward adulthood. It is not a substitute for psychotherapy or substance abuse treatment.

Details

Venue

Organizer