Youth Rites

Youth Rites is an exciting new monthly program designed to work for high school students and Danu Teens who are unable commit to a weekly program. High schools are very supportive of students taking a day per month for this kind of supportive education. Danu staff can collaborate with school teachers to identify learning goals and offer feedback for students. 

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Youth Rites is a co-ed program for youth ready to deepen their connection to nature, themselves, and each other — and to mark the threshold between childhood and emerging adulthood with meaning and care.

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Gathering through the seasons and culminating in a spring rite of passage, including a 24-hour solo on the land, this program offers a rare kind of space: one that honours the inner shifts of adolescence, supports genuine self-expression, and holds each young person as capable of discovering their own voice and direction.

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Guided by Bill Plotkin’s nature-based map of human development,Youth Rites invites young people to explore identity and belonging beyond roles and expectations. This is a stage of experimentation and creativity, of stepping into mature ways of being, and beginning to wonder:

What is true for me?

What do I care about?

What do I bring to the world?

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Throughout the year, we’ll combine land-based skills, peer group connection, and soulful inquiry, grounding big questions in meaningful, hands-on experiences. Youth will:

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• Build confidence and connection through games, challenges, and group process

• Learn traditional skills like carving, firemaking, foraging, naturalist's awareness, and handcrafts

• Explore self-reflection through journalling, storytelling, nature wanderings, art, movement, and solo time on the land

• Participate in council circles that foster honesty, empathy, and mutual respect

• Practice reciprocity with the natural world, grounded in a context of ancestral cultural practice

• Prepare for a supported overnight solo and threshold ceremony to mark their passage

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We are lucky to have an incredible programming site at Japanese Town in Cumberland with access to various dynamic biomes including the lush riparian  forest of Perseverance Creek and Coal Beach, and the rocky bluffs ecosystem over Comox Lake. Our spring overnight will take place over 2 nights at a wilderness site within 90 minutes drive of the Comox Valley. 

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More than just a skill-building program, Youth Rites offers a held space for transformation — a place for young people to be real, to be seen, and to be challenged in a good way. Teens consistently tell us how much they value this kind of space: one where they can relax, feel accepted, and connect on a deeper level. Rooted in the values of Danu Folk School, Youth Rites is not about achieving or performing, but about remembering who we are and how we belong.

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Co-led by Danu founder Kes and core steward Dani, this program is a heartfelt container for growth, trust, and the sacred work of growing up.