Teens have a tough job these days.

Entering adulthood is more complicated than ever. Queer Kinnection offers queer youth the support, challenge, and mentoring that they are yearning for to be able really grapple with the questions that matter to their emerging spirits: “Who am I, beyond my roles, relationships, or vocation? Where do I stand in the world? Where and with whom do I belong? What will I contribute to this world?

One of the most crucial ways that people come to know themselves more deeply is to get reflections of themselves that allow them to see more about themselves than they’ve known before. Queer Kinnection offers three powerful mirrors:

The mirror of the group: living together in the wilderness is one of the most powerful social experiences humans can have. When you truly rely on one another to fulfill your basic needs, where all choices and contributions truly matter to the lived experience of everyone, you learn a LOT about yourself and others.

The mirror of Nature: Nature doesn’t care about any masks we wear, it is always asking “Who Are You REALLY?” It doesn’t play games, it just gets right down to what’s real. Reality check is a phenomenally important part of developing an authentic sense of power and place in the world.

The mirror of solitude: Being truly alone with yourself is essential to discerning, developing and sometimes confronting the stories we tell about ourselves, the narratives that shape who we think we are, and how we think we should be in the world. It also creates the opportunity for us to receive guidance from the mysterious world beyond ourselves and the people in our lives.

Family Participation

Rites of Passage aren’t just for the youth moving from childhood toward adulthood. Just as the youth must come to understand themselves as being more than who they have been, so too the families and communities of those youth must let go of that younger person, and make room for a new, fuller person to arrive. Queer Kinnection begins and ends with ceremonies that allow parents and community to bid farewell to the old self, and to welcome that new self that arrives at the end of the trip.

*We use the term queer to include the full breadth of the LGBTQ2IA+ communities, and to powerfully claim the crucial importance of queer as part of healthy, vibrant and diverse human societies. We acknowledge that the term queer has been used in the past as a derogatory term, and is still hurtful to some in the LGBTQ2IA+ community. We are joining with the many LGBTQ2IA+ communities and individuals who are reclaiming the word queer as an empowering and uniting expression of the many complex identities within the community.

Please inquire for financial assistance if needed.

Queer Kinnection will be held at River Root on the Wild Middle Fork of the Nooksack River. See information below.

We invite all interested applicants to pre-register today!

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• Finding a sense of belonging in the world: embracing nature as a mirror

• Learning to trust one’s self: listening to one’s intuition

• Owning the gifts of one’s queerness: cultivating a positive image of self and one’s role in the world   

• Developing leadership styles and teamwork skills: building self-confidence in service to others

• learning to love one’s self: developing physical strength, personal resolve and emotional resilience

• Embarking on a wholistic path through queer adolescence toward adulthood

• Knowledge of our Queer ancestors and their roles in nature and the human world

• Knowledge of the natural history of the Pacific Northwest

• Knowledge of how to spend time in nature using low-impact camping techniques

Get involved during the school year with our

Crow Collective

A monthly weekend program that gets outside and discovers whats inside! Friday evening thru Sunday afternoons, October through May

Fire on the Mountain

Ages 15 - 18
Find out more >

Solo
Crossing

Ages 15 - 18
Find out more >