The Windsor / Detroit Community

New Warriors came to Windsor/Detroit (W/D) when Cecil Eaves of Windsor did the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) in Milwaukee in July 1989. That same year, 5 more men from the area did the NWTA and the first W/D Community Christmas party was held that December. W/D’s first Integration took place in Windsor in May-June 1990. John Phelps was the first man from the US to join the men in Windsor after he did the NWTA in the summer of 1991.

Early in its existence, W/D began holding community gatherings, called Chautauquas, for training and building community. The first W/D Chautauqua was facilitated by David Lindgren from Chicago. Chautauqua is an Iroquois word meaning a place for education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays often presented outdoors or in a tent.

To become its own Centre, W/D held an organizational meeting in September 1993 and an Executive was formed in October 1993. The first W/D NWTA was May 1994 at Guestwood Camp southeast of Windsor. Since that time the area served by W/D has expanded so that there are now active I-Groups in Toronto north (Newmarket), Toronto, Cambridge, London, and Windsor, ON, Elkhart, IN, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Lansing, Detroit and Southeast MI, Toledo, Cleveland, and Akron, OH.

One new area of building for the W/D community is that more and more I-Groups are opening themselves up to men who have not as yet attended an NWTA. The uninitiated men are invited to share their feelings, increase their emotional intelligence, be supported, and feel the fellowship of men's emotional support. The hope is that the open groups will help to increase the circle of men and model what positive support can look like between men.