In American culture, some boys and young men tear themselves down to fit a mold that promotes single-mindedness, repression, dominance and the belief that violence solves problems — sometimes with catastrophic outcomes.

That’s what Nicky Wilks, Vashon native and executive director of the island-based nonprofit organization Journeymen, said is fundamentally wrong with the current paradigm of masculinity and the deep misunderstandings it engenders.

“What we do is provide an initiatory experience for boys and young men to essentially step into an authentic male identity,” he said. “If men are given permission to express themselves authentically as human beings, we feel these decisions, behaviors and patterns witnessed in society today could be reduced and even eliminated.”

On Saturday, Journeymen will host a fundraiser adventure course at the Open Space from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in benefit of a scholarship fund so their suite of offerings is more accessible to low-income families. Called The Gauntlet, the course is designed for all ages and represents the hero’s journey in pursuit of positive transformation. Registration is available online at journeymen.us/courses/the-gauntlet/ and will be open through Friday.

The case for an examination of masculinity has grown stronger as survivors of sexual assault come forward to share their experiences and declare #metoo. Looking for answers in the wake of devastating mass shootings, researchers are quick to point out that almost all of them are committed by disenfranchised men with a history of perpetrating domestic violence. Meanwhile, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, men die by suicide more than three times as often as women.

According to Wilks, Journeymen is a vehicle intended to nurture boys in the ways they need in order for them to self-actualize. Participants are immersed in nature to facilitate key rites of passage that ceremoniously characterize their transition to manhood. Many of the rites that Journeymen implements begin after disconnecting from cell phones and family, learning about each other, living outdoors, and for some, embarking on a 24-hour long solo vigil in the wilderness to nourish the boys’ self-reliance.

The prevailing markers Wilks said are held as the criterion of development for boys — a first sexual experience, obtaining a driver’s license and reaching the legal drinking age — affirm rigid and potentially harmful ideas about how to be a man. Worst of all, no priority is devoted to the maturation of their own individuality.

“We have a deep process to work around refining and reclaiming statements about identity, so that when young people come back from this experience and are asked, ‘who are you,’ they have a very secure sense of self,” he said. “When someone has a strong sense of self, that becomes an anchor point for the rest of what they do in the world.”

Alex Craighead, Journeymen program director and physical education teacher at Chautauqua Elementary School, said many of the challenges facing today’s boys stem from a lack of available role models. It’s why he said the organization makes a concerted effort to provide opportunities for the boys to engage with older male mentors on a regular basis as part of the program’s flagship course, called The Quest, a rite-of-passage experience that includes a full year of ongoing integrated support and meetups.

“I feel like our culture doesn’t fully embrace mentorship in the sense that most people who come of age don’t seem to have a sense of duty to show up for the next generation, except when they have kids or [become educators] themselves,” he said, alluding to his own adolescence on Vashon. When a community is bereft of those willing to step up and exemplify what it means to love oneself, engage with others who are different and mitigate interpersonal conflict, he said, young men and women look for figures to emulate in the wrong people.

“We were being initiated by people who hadn’t had rites of passage themselves,” said Craighead.

In addition to The Quest, the Journeymen program has been incorporated in the Vashon public schools by way of the boys’ Circles course — an acronym standing for Compassion, Integrity, Resiliency, Community, Leadership, Equity and Service. Circles is a mentorship opportunity offered at no cost to participants, on an opt-in basis. It’s led by professionally trained facilitators and adult volunteer mentors from the community.

According to Craighead, one of the focuses of the Journeymen curriculum is for boys to learn how they can express themselves and their feelings in respectful ways, as well as how to face inevitable rejection in life, which he said is critical. Using specific language, question prompts and presentation of topics, course leaders are deliberate in their efforts to be inclusive and to avoid upholding heteronormative models of masculinity.

“We want to make sure that the boys in the program understand that there’s no one way to live a life, and so that’s been really important to us,” said Craighead, adding that they hope to teach the men of tomorrow how to be both compassionate and able to stand their ground.

“Men [today] have a responsibility to take the higher side of things and raise a new generation of heart-centered young men who are actually going to be allies and stand up for people who have been oppressed for far too long,” he said.

Malik Banks, a Tacoma native and Journeymen mentor, said his upbringing was marred by a sense of not belonging, and by the sudden absence of those he asked for help. Of his years in middle school and junior high, he said, “I felt there was no hope, no one who could understand my pain or help me get out of it.”

In his sophomore year, Banks began attending Stadium High School in Tacoma and met Athrettis Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Young Business Men and Women (YBMW). With Brown’s mentorship, Banks said that he learned what it would take for him and his peers to be successful, inspiring him to concentrate on his studies. During his senior year, his mother was evicted from her home, and with nowhere to go, he called Brown, who told him to move in — and put a roof over his head.

Like Craighead, Banks believes that the relationships between youth and mentors can change lives. After graduating high school, he became deeply invested in YBMW’s activities and wanred to model himself for others who needed someone to look up to. By coincidence, he later met Wilks at Vashon High School while on a visit to connect and expand the organization’s work to other communities.

“[Wilks] just started breaking down what Journeymen was, and we started seeing how YBMW was basically the same thing,” said Banks. As a new mentor, he said he felt “all-in” after a group of Journeymen boys and fellow mentors attended a talent show he was emceeing.

Looking back on how far he’s come, Banks said that having the attention and support of others to guide him and celebrate his accomplishments made all the difference.

“If I just apply myself and lead with love one step at a time, I know I can change the world,” he said.

Lola Reed, a parent of a Journeymen alumnus, also understands the power of transformational mentorship. Working as a consultant for Microsoft, she created a partnership with Glamour Magazine’s The Girl Project and matched five women who work for the company with five students attending the Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy Charter School in New York. The students will be coached throughout high school and provided opportunities to start internships as well as qualify for various scholarships.

But Reed said she believes that at large, boys have continually been going underserved.

“If we’re going to change outcomes for women, we’ve got to look at how we’re socializing our boys,” she said.

That’s when she discovered Journeymen and the rites of passage — and thought it was a perfect fit for her son, Hamish Currie.

“We don’t have any real positive rites of passage [for boys], and I think we forget that adolescents are going through exceptional change… there’s not a widely known positive roadmap,” she said. “I feel like it’s been great for us as a family, it’s been great for him as a person, and I feel like he has a whole new set of tools… he has almost like this tribe of guys who’ve gone through this experience with him, and it just gives him this context that he didn’t have before.”

Currie agrees. After taking part in Quest, he became a youth mentor himself to a group of middle school-aged boys. He said the experience has left him self-assured and comfortable in his own skin.

“I’m definitely a lot more responsible now. I take care of myself, I’m able to advocate and speak about myself rather than hanging out and hoping somebody notices.”