Frequently asked questions for rites & responsibilities
Why a course for white folks?
As white, white-assimilated, and white-passing educators, guides, mentors, parents, youth and community leaders, we have particular responsibilities when it comes to reclaiming, restoring, and regenerating rites of passage. Most white folks are settlers in lands that were forcibly taken from Indigenous and local communities and live outside of our ethnic and cultural contexts. As a caucus space, this course makes room for the complexity of this terrain. This involves attending to legacies of theft, exploitation, suppression, and commodification of the practices of our Black, Brown, and Indigenous kin, alongside broader issues of ongoing violence, genocide, and injustice. This also involves anchoring ourselves in the life-affirming, resourcing practices of our ancestors, and deepening our understanding of the harm our ancestors endured, the ways we face oppression today, and the role of rites of passage and related cultural practices in healing ourselves, our families, and our communities. We celebrate and uplift the work of other important efforts that are reclaiming, restoring, and regenerating passages for People of the Global Majority (PoGM). Right now, we are working with PoGM partners to provide more details and resources to access these important efforts.
What about People of the Global Majority?
There are powerful efforts available to folks from a variety of racialized backgrounds that provide initiatory experiences and training holding a related intention/prayer to this course, in ways that are relevant to the ancestral, cultural, and social contexts of their audiences. Some of these are racially specific, and some of them are multi-racial. Many of these efforts are community-based initiatives rather than the time-bound, training framework of this particular offering. Currently, we are working with PoGM partners to provide more details and resources to these important efforts. In the meantime, we recommend you check out Youth Passageways’ database and/or fill out Youth Passageways’ Education & Consulting Collective Intake Form to receive referrals and/or direct support.
Isn’t caucusing just creating more divides?
Race-based caucusing is one critical tool we have in our efforts to create a safer, more just, and less fragmented world. Equally as essential are spaces where people can come together across racial differences, learn from one another, be challenged, and grow. The learning, growth, and connection that can come in multi-racial spaces is supported by race-based caucus groups. Too often, mixed race groups are actually white-dominant groups (groups where it’s mostly people that appear to be white, and/or white cultural norms are centered) ignore, dismiss, and minimize the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of harm that show up in the room. Doing our own work in caucus spaces ultimately minimizes harm,allowing space and time for education, relationship-building, and healing. Over the duration of this course, the guides and accountability partners will look for opportunities for multi-racial learning spaces to emerge. For more information, see Racial Caucusing: What is it, and how can it help? and/or this resource on Caucus and Affinity Groups from Racial Equity Tools.
I don’t understand the way you’re working with money. Why don’t you just give a price?
We ask all participants to deepen their inquiry into their own relationship with money and its relationship with ceremony, as part of the course content - beginning with determining your financial contribution for the course. Our way with money is an essential part of the curriculum for R&R. This starts with registration and whether folx join the course or not, we hope that interacting with a needs-based resource flow will inform how you approach rites of passage.
We are committed to making this course available to all who seek to participate and meet the qualifications, regardless of their financial means, while also tending to the financial well-being of the team. Please review the Rites & Responsibilities Resource Flow Framework for more information regarding the financial philosophy for the course, an important aspect of engaging in this healing work together.
We ask participants to contribute $0-$5,000+ for the 9-months:
$0 allows all to enter with no financial exchange
$1,500 meets minimum course expenses, if we have 25 participants
$2,500 helps to move toward thriving, and/or helps meet minimum course expenses, if we have less than 25 participants, or some contribute less than $1500
$5,000 (or more) supports long-term viability of the work and upholds the dignity of the guides and all who choose to participate (regardless of financial capacity)
If this is all overwhelming, please start with imagining giving $3,000 upfront for the course. If this truly doesn’t feel possible, adjust downward until you find an amount that does. If $3,000 does feel possible, adjust upwards until it feels like too much. If you find you tend to overstretch, consider contributing just a little less. If you find you tend to constrict, consider increasing your giving just a bit. Don’t overthink it! And please reach out to info@riteofpassagejourneys.org if you have questions or need support.
