As an extension from our ‘Rock Solid Boys’ tween and teen character development and positive mental health habits program, our rites of passage programs provide your boys with a unique experience where they are taken away from their “normal” life and challenged both in mind and body to experience and achieve things they have never done before, nor thought they could do. This is the stimulus for change.

As part of their transition and personal development, the boys will look at where they are now in their lives, the skills, strengths and support structure they have and then look at the dreams and aspirations they have for their future. Often as men, we hold back from believing and pursuing the dreams for our lives because we don’t know “how” we will make it happen and the fear of failure stops us in our tracks. This can lead us to feeling displaced, directionless and lacking self-worth. As part of this program, we will tackle this issue head on and look at some key principles and strategies for personal achievement that will help build confidence in your young man and his ability to design and take responsibility for his future.

Another key element to this program is the formation of the group that they will be taking this journey alongside. We specialise in delivering group programs and the connectedness and learning outcomes of our participants is based on leading the group through 5 stages of group formation psychology. These 5 critical stages that all groups of people go through when sharing an experience will naturally allow your young man to easily build new friendships, feel trust and comfort within the group and also work cohesively as part of a team.
The key character elements that we will be addressing in this program are:

Building self esteem
Self-awareness
Teamwork and social confidence
Problem solving
Building trust
Self-control
Acceptance
Empathy; and
Forgiveness.

The Rites of Passage program includes 2 introductory group sessions and 2 individual follow up mentoring sessions after the camp experience as continued support. More mentoring sessions are available by arrangement.

In our experience, there is no better environment and activity to engage these young men in this process than remote bush walking and survival in the Australian Bush.
For this program we utilise marked walking trails and remote campsites within Queensland National Parks and have set multi-day walks in a range of locations to suit optimal weather and conditions. Each camp experience takes the boys on foot into remote bushland where they will be walking between 25 and 35km’s over 2.5 days and 2 nights camping. The boys work as teams to carry everything they will need over the time including food, water, clothing and shelter; and will learn skills in all areas of pack walking, basic bush survival, endurance and navigation and map reading.
Although we intentionally want the boys to feel the challenge and exhilaration that comes with remote bush walking and basic bushcraft, their safety is paramount so each walk has been checked for satellite phone or cellular phone coverage and all staff are remote first-aid trained. All the adults involved in our programs hold Blue Cards for safely working with young people and are experienced bush walkers and guides.

As part of this program, we also include a “Raising Young Men” parent information and strategy session. This is a two-hour evening session designed to give you tools and strategies for confidently parenting your young man. During this session we will look at what the boys learned in greater detail so you can further support and continue their development into the future. Further parenting support and mentoring of your young man is available upon request as part of the program.

A key element for a young man’s rite of passage is that upon his return, the people around him from that point on treat him as the man his is becoming, so this parent session is critical to both reinforcing the learning experience for your young person but also further enhancing the new positive habits that have been established in their lives.

It is also designed to support you as parents for developing greater independence in your boys and give you some practical tools to allow them to take responsibility for their choices and behaviours as they grow into men.