A community dedicated to rites of passage for boys aged 14-16
Each year Kingfisher Project offers a group of 8 teenage boys a 4-day, rites-of-passage adventure.
Throughout history, cultures have understood the benefits of initiating teenagers. They have come up with clear, firm, creative ways to guide teenagers’ energy towards self-worth and a sense of their place in the world.
But these days, many children grow up without any serious effort to mark their coming of age. A lack of rites of passage can lead young men to self-initiation and a range of troubled behaviours: from anxiety and lack of belief to addictions, aggression, and gangs.
Kingfisher Project springs from a wish to do something about this, by offering teenage boys the fresh sense of direction and self-worth provided by communal initiation.
Parents cannot provide rites of passage alone. But a group of resilient and trustworthy men, with knowledge of ritual and the human heart, can. With help from a community like this, teenagers can discover a new sense of themselves, as respected and self-respecting young men.
With your support, more boys can take part
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With your support, more boys can take part 〰️
The Kingfisher Project team includes Simon Roe, Ben Howarth, Anthony Haddon, David Edwards, Lee Stagles, Jeremy Hawkey, Sean Taylor, Eric Maddern, Marcus Joseph & William Ayot.
Our Community
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
— from AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Hear from participants about their Kingfisher Project experience.