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MKP and Men's Health Network - Men's Health Month 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The ManKind Project
May 7, 2012
CONTACT: Boysen Hodgson, MKP USA Communications Director, communications@mkpusa.org
ManKind Project and the Men's Health Network; Partnering for Men’s Health
Men’s Health week is June 11-17, 2012. The ManKind Project, a non-profit men’s training and educational organization, is partnering with the Men’s Health Network, a Washington, DC based non-profit advocacy and education organization, to raise awareness about men’s health issues for the whole month of June.
The ManKind Project, with its global network of men’s peer-support groups, is dedicated to creating safer and healthier communities by supporting mature masculinity and challenging unhealthy male stereotypes and behaviors. The ManKind Project will be holding events throughout the month of June to support men to take charge of their health, get screened for common men’s health conditions, and break the silence about the impacts men’s health problems have on our families and communities. You can get involved by getting free Resources for Men’s Health at the ManKind Project website. If you’re a man ready to take a challenging step to improving all aspects of your life; including your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual life, consider joining a men’s group or attending a weekend intensive for men offered by the ManKind Project.
Man Up. Get Healthy.
One of the most powerful choices you can make as a man is the choice to care for yourself. Men are often reluctant to seek the help they need because of cultural messages that we are supposed to somehow be indestructible. We're not. Fear and Shame can be powerful motivators to stay stuck in old behaviors that no longer help you. Today, you can take a big step toward changing that old pattern.
What's more ... you don't have to do it alone. In the ManKind Project, men have a community to give them the extra 'push' they need to begin creating healthy habits. We also have the skills and resources to help men get unstuck from the stickiest old habits.
As a starting place ... grab the great resources below.
And when you're ready for some real support from other men like you, connect with a local ManKind Project Community and take the risk to change your life.
Quick Resources
Men's Blueprint for Health - PDF
Get It Checked - for Men and Women
MKP Men - Get an EASY to USE Flyer for your Wear Blue Event.
Do a WEAR BLUE Event in your Men's Group!
As a way to recognize this partnership and gain national exposure for the ManKind Project - you and your community can take action to raise awareness of men's health issues - DO A WEAR BLUE EVENT in your IGroup or at Community Event.
It's almost TOO EASY.
1. Wear Blue
2. Print Poster(s) (like this one ... HERE)
3. Take a Picture of your group holding some posters. (Send it to me ... boysen@mkp.org)
4. [OPTIONAL] - Make a group donation to the Men's Health Network (a 501c(3) charitable org) (Donate HERE)
I will post the pictures up on the International Facebook Page and send them to the Men's Health Network for distribution and promotion of their international campaign. MKP gets recognized in Press Releases for the Men's Health Network.
ManKind Project Supports World Suicide Prevention Day
The ManKind Project USA is working with the ManKind Project International and the Mental Health Resource Team (MHRT) to coordinate efforts for World Suicide Prevention Day - September 10, 2012.
We ask men from all our regions to participate in this effort by spreading the word to our IGroups and engaging men in our communities to take action.
To participate, please contact David Rose, the Chair of the Mental Health Resource Team at: mhrt@mkp.org
As always, the MHRT is available 24/7 to assist in an emergency or potential emergency at mhrt@mkp.org or 301-502-1777.
The MKPI Suicide Awareness and Prevention Initiative
The Mental Health Resource Team (MHRT) invites and urges you to participate in World Suicide Prevention Day. On and around September 10, groups, communities, and organizations all over the world will be meeting and supporting each other in learning about suicide, learning how to prevent it, and learning how to deal with its aftermath.
How can we join them in this vital initiative? That’s the good news- much of the preparatory work has already been done for us. The home page of World Suicide Prevention Day is World Suicide Prevention Day is www.iasp.info/wspd/. Visit this site (or use the links below) and you will find resources that will help you
Find World Suicide Prevention Day banners in over 40 languages.
Download the World Suicide Prevention Day brochure.
Download the World Suicide Prevention Day Suggested Activities sheet.
Read about World Suicide Prevention Day activities throughout the world.
Download the World Suicide Prevention Day Toolkit, a single-page PDF that contains links to World Suicide Prevention Day resources and related Web sites.
Use the WSPD Activities Online Submission Form to let us know about your World Suicide Prevention Day activities.
Let us know where to send your Certificate of Appreciation for participating in World Suicide Prevention Day.
Visit the Official World Suicide Prevention Day Facebook Event Page. Over 1,500 people from around the world have indicated they are participating in a World Suicide Prevention Day activity.
How can you participate?
- If you’re a Center Director, find your best facilitators and ask them to convene a Community Circle and use the World Suicide Prevention Day resources to start a discussion- and encourage men to go out and share what they’ve learned.
- If you’re an I-Group Council member or I-Group Facilitator, take these resources out to the I-Groups, new and old. Many of these activities can be adapted to an I-Group evening format.
- If you’re a certified Leader or Co-Leader, share these resources with your mentees and make use of them in NWTA staff meetings.
- If you’re involved in Boys To Men, there are materials and activities suitable for that age group, and no, that’s not too early- that population is especially vulnerable!
- If you’re a man in an I-Group, bring these resources to your group and use them to encourage sharing and mutual support.
Our vision for World Suicide Prevention Day (and after) is that
- EVERY Center and Community will convene a Community Circle to share these resources and begin an ongoing, informed Community conversation about suicide.
- EVERY Certified Leader and Co-Leader and senior I-Group facilitator will be familiar with these resources.
- EVERY I-Group will know about the resources and activities that are available, and know who to call for support in using them.
And what can you do now? RIGHT now? Go to that website and just start looking around. This site brings together information that mental health professionals have been accumulating for decades in a very user-friendly format. This is a website that can teach us things we need to know, that can help us give men hope, that can help us give men breathing space to find new alternatives.
This is a website that can help us save lives.
Join us on World Suicide Prevention Day.
It’s time to fight back the darkness.
George Daranyi interview on the Secret Lives of Men Radio Program with Chris Blazina, Ph.D
The Chairman of the ManKind Project, George Daranyi, was interviewed on Blog Talk Radio's program "The Secret Lives of Men" with Chris Blazina, Ph.D - a notable and published Psychologist, Researcher and Author. Chris's show archives are available at The Secret Lives of Men, along with the book of the same name.
This interview with George covers a broad spectrum. Chris and George explore why initiation and male-only spaces help men evolve in their emotional skills and are a valuable and needed resources in a society that still expects men to 'hang tough' in the face of growing uncertainty and fear. Developing healthy relational attitudes, beliefs and responsibility for actions and feelings helps men improve all the relationships in their lives. A healthy way to develop these competencies is with other men committed to mentoring one another through all the stages of their lives, a mission which the ManKind Project has been doing for 25 years.
George speaks to the 'calling' that men feel to engage with other men and the fear that prevents many men from reaching out to get the support and the challenge they need to be successful in life. The ManKind Project is the largest male training and education support network in the United States - with 30 communities hosting regular men's groups and New Warrior Training Adventures throughout the year. The ManKind Project International also represents 7 other independent global regions, in German speaking and French speaking Europe, the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
If you're ready to find your place in a circle of men - contact someone in your local community to learn more.
Listen to the Interview:
Download the Interview: RIGHT CLICK HERE
The Good Men Project - Men's Narrative for Today
The Good Men Project
The Good Men Project is about capturing the modern male narrative. It is about giving men an opportunity to talk candidly about themselves and take ownership of the everyday heroism and everyday failures that men in the 21st century experience. Right now there is a book, a DVD and a growing social network through the Good Men Project website. Within a couple of years, the project hopes to have a number of additional books, movies and TV programs developed or in the works. These stories come from soldiers and immigrants, ex-convicts and photo-journalists, fortune 500 executives, musicians and single dads.
Tom Matlack is the founder of the Good Men Project. He grew up very close to where the New England ManKind Project community was born, in a western Massachusetts town called Shutesbury. He doesn't talk a lot about it, but he has a deep understanding of the early men's movement, as seen through the eyes of a kid living in the mytho-poetic heart of the northeast United States. He's come a long way since then. Today his 6th floor corner office looks out on the high end shops and restaurants of downtown Boston's Newbury Street. His choices led him here, sometimes consciously and sometimes by accident. He's dedicated the last two years of his life to exploring and creating a 21st century dialogue about men and masculinity.
Matlack is passionate about getting the word out - and fostering dialogue about what it means to be a man in today's world. We're with you, Tom.
The Good Men Project book is an excellent way to open the door to a greater possibility of male connection through truth-telling. This book is not Chicken Soup, it's stew. It's not stories tied in a neat bow with some words of wisdom. These are men's stories; complex, sometimes painful, full of heart. Buy a copy for yourself, Click here to visit http://www.goodmenproject.org" target="_blank">buy a copy for a man in your life.
Richard Wiener - The Uses of Adversity - 2002 Audio Keynote
Richard Wiener - ManKind Project Greater Washington DC Community
Personal Mission:
I co-create a world of peace and harmony by promoting reconciliation among both individuals and nations.
Action in the World:
Richard Wiener was born in Germany, and lived for six years under the Nazi regime, experiencing first hand the oppression and violence perpetrated against Jews as the only Jewish child in the the school he attended from 1937-1939. He experienced Crystal Night while his father was in Buchenwald concentration camp, and was part of a small number of children allowed to flee to England in 1939. At age 13, he reached the U.S., and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he returned to his hometown and initiated a process of reconciliation with his former Hitler Youth classmates.
His mission is to advocate forgiveness and reconciliation as the only viable path to peace, on both the personal and international levels. To this end,He presents a workshop called The Power of Forgiveness at various venues around the country, and speaks to students, church groups and delinquents both here in the US and in Germany, his native country. He has delivered keynote addresses on forgiveness at Berea College, at a World Elders Gathering and at an MKPI Annual Meeting. He has also sponsored the high school and university education of a Costa Rican boy, have been a hospice volunteer and bereavement counselor, and a Laubach Method literacy trainer.
In 2002 Richard Wiener gave a key-note address to a joint meeting of the ManKind Project and Women Within in Evanston, IL. We are making that keynote available to you for free here. Richard's story of hardship begins in NAZI Germany and spans 8 decades of powerful choices leading inevitably to his mission of reconciliation. He is a deeply touching and powerful speaker. Since 2002, Wiener has continued his mission of understanding to diverse groups of people. He serves his community in multiple ways. At 82 years of age, Richard Wiener is still a vibrant, engaging and spirited man. He is a Ritual Elder in the ManKind Project Community and was a featured speaker at the 2005 World Elder Gathering.
In 2009 Richard Wiener was awarded the Ron Hering Mission of Service Award for the Greater Washington DC ManKind Project Community.
Download the Audio by RIGHT CLICK and SAVE AS: Richard Wiener AUDIO FILE
George Daranyi & Earl Hipp on the "Daily Male" Radio Program, 104.1 FM Tucson, AZ
The Chairman of the ManKind Project, George Daranyi, along with Earl Hipp, author of "ManMaking; Men Helping Boys on Their Journey to Manhood" were featured in a 35 minute section of the Daily Male Radio program on 104.1 TheTruth in Tucson, AZ.
This is a wide-ranging interview that covers the challenges of men 'awakening' to our responsibility in the 21st century - to embrace a fully mature masculinity, recreate male relationships, and reclaim our role in helping to raise boys to become good men. They spend time exploring the historic role of men's rite of passage experiences and the consequences of having lost the clear multi-generational teaching, mentoring and cultural reinforcement that could be helping us solve the crisis in masculinity. Violence, disconnection and 'sleep-walking' so common in today's men and boys can be addressed by men who are dedicated to confronting their fears and 'doing the work' that it takes to become authentic, mature, and compassionate men.
Hipp explores effectively stepping up to help boys become powerful and compassionate men through Boys to Men Mentoring programs, which are expanding nationwide and around the world. George and Earl, along with the show's hosts, one of whom is also a New Warrior, do a nice job breaking down some of the problems facing modern men and they offer possibilities for stepping back onto the field of your life with a renewed sense of purpose and connection to mature masculinity.
The ManKind Project exists to reclaim the lost legacy of men mentoring men to create cultural norms that work for the good of the society. Today's men need to be compassionate, respectful and empathetic along with possessing the fierce power of integrity and purpose that it will take to overcome the self-centered 'me first' culture of masculinity that has overtaken most of the dialogue about masculinity, and build cooperative and fully responsible communities.
You're invited to confront your own fears and step up to the door. We need good men.
Listen to the interview right here, or DOWNLOAD by using right click --> save as.
