Visions and Mission Statements of The Wild Human Initiative
{As part of the process of registering our Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of State, we submit the following in support of our organization. We are a grassroots organization, but we plan on growing, so here it is.}
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation, a sustainable, nonprofit educational and charitable organization, exists to awaken ancient pathways to healing and educating our uninhibited, authentic, true human nature, as it exists in the context of the modern world. As such, we seek to advocate and promote the philosophies and practices of both traditional and contemporary human life ways.
We seek in our activities to address the following needs: to provide charitable relief to disadvantaged people; to combat juvenile delinquency; to lessen community tensions; to advocate experiential learning and social networking; and to further the philosophies and practices of Wild Humanism.
We wish to provide impoverished and disadvantaged people with opportunities to experience life in community, to realize their personal visions and to manifest their goals, in order to enhance their lives, resulting in personal empowerment and cultural transformation.
We wish to provide experiential educational and social opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, by promoting the natural world and the betterment of the human character, through programs based on humanistic and ecological values such as sustainability, deep ecology, and respect for and valuing of the wisdoms of both traditional and contemporary life ways.
We also intend to provide charitable relief to disadvantaged people by implementing programs and projects which will uplift, comfort and empower them. Our programs and projects will include endowments for travel and self-sufficiency, including giveaway boxes of food, personal items, and camping equipment. We intend to help with food, clothing, shelter, travel, and more as the needs of our participants make themselves apparent.
The mission of The Wild Human Initiative Corporation is to provide people with enriching and positive experiences of living in harmony with nature in a variety of settings, as well as to offer opportunities to learn unique skills, increase self-esteem, make new friends, and encourage personal growth. We wish to empower people to make realistic, positive decisions in actual wilderness and urban settings, while discovering what it means to live in community and to respect the Earth, other people and lifeforms, and themselves.
Ultimately, the mission of The Wild Human Initiative Corporation is to be a viable part of the solutions to the underpinning and overarching problems creating suffering for humanity and the natural world at this time. In short, we wish to help create a healthier, happier, more peaceful world by promoting ancient pathways to healing and awakening our authentic human nature as it exists in the modern world. To accomplish this, we will serve as a bridge between participants and the community by providing programs and projects aimed at personal empowerment and cultural transformation.
Beneficiaries of The Wild Human Initiative
Target Groups of Clients who will Benefit from Our Services
How The Wild Human Initiative Corporation Intends to Accomplish These Broad Visions
(Primary Benefits and Services to Our Participants)
Publication of a general newsletter, a corporate website, and various guidebooks and booklets relevant to our endeavors
Establishment of a Community Vision Council, to facilitate regular potlucks, community events, and service projects
Host community events such as Multicultural, Multigenerational, and Music Festivals, as well as Drumming Circles
Offer workshops and speaking engagements to community members and the general public
Offer outreach programs to provide various forms of emergency relief, including but not limited to food boxes, household and personal boxes, animal care boxes, free clothing and camping equipment for indigent travelers
Establishment of a Living and Learning Community Center with archival facilities for researching and displaying relevant information and artifacts, and including a free coffeehouse for participants, with a computer-equipped study lounge and internet access
Assistance and support to achieve personal goals
Training and support in cottage industry projects
Launching and maintenance of a web-based business to provide supplies and to sell the products of our cottage industries to financially support our endeavors
Rental of a storefront to receive applications, hold meetings, sell cottage industry products, and to offer space for participants to work on those products
Rental or purchase of a suitable homestead/camp/retreat, outfitted with vehicles and supplies, to offer Wild Human Initiative Camps and Retreats, as well as workshops and community events, and to employ and house our long-term participants
Acquire and convert several schoolbusses and convert them to biodiesel, in order to offer biodiesel bus caravans trips to Belize, Costa Rica, and other sacred places inhabited by Wild Humans
These benefits and services comprise the following aspects of The Wild Human Initiative
Grassroots community building
Living and Learning Community Center
Wild Human Initiative Storefront
Homestead and Camp
Biodiesel busses for outreach programs and caravan trips
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation will be represented by several interrelated programs. The Wild Human Initiative projects and programs will be committed to the processes of social maturation for people of all ages who are learning to understand relationships withing the context of community and human tribalism. These programs and projects will provide safe and supportive places from which to dare to look at themselves and the world and learn to live fulfilling and satisfying lives. The Wild Human Initiative Academy will provide guidance to participants for clearing up business from the past, such as legal and educational paperwork, as well as assistance in the completion of educational and occupational goals, by providing computer access, relevant materials, and connection with local community organizations. The Wild Human Initiative Camp will be located on a suitable homestead in a beautiful, natural setting, and will provide experiential instruction in survival skills, outdoor leadership, cottage industry handicrafts, and more.
In addition to assistance with completion of educational and occupational goals at the storefront and learning center, and in addition to our outreach programs which will provide charitable relief to people in need, the Wild Human Initiative intends to implement the following activities at The Wild Human Initiative Camp:
Learn arts and crafts both from long ago and from contemporary times, for personal enrichment and for sale to promote financial well-being
Explore forests, streams and other natural features without fear and with a sense of childlike adventure and joy
Stay in a tipi, cabin, yurt, treehouse, or other primitive, natural structure
Enjoy bonfires, storytelling, and great food prepared from scratch
Go on guided overnight hikes and walkabouts
Learn to track, stalk, and read the environment with natural navigation and awareness skills
Learn to fish and gather edible foods from the forest, as well as to utilize nontraditional methods of food gathering in urban areas
Sleep under the stars and beside waterfalls in the mountains, and to swim in creeks and rivers
Learn to create tools and other items from wood, stone and available materials
Play fun games and make wonderful new friends
Learn ancient survival skills such as edible plant identification, flint knapping, pottery, bowmaking, basketry, fire-by-friction, storytelling, drumming, dancing, and singing.
Other Details of The Wild Human Initiative
Leadership will be provided by carefully chosen counselors and staff who exhibit the qualities of compassion, inner joy, love of people, love of learning, love of nature, and who are highly skilled, imaginative, and talented. Our staff will be educated and diverse. We aim for a staff/participant ratio of 1 to 4. All of the staff will be 18 years of age or older. Whenever possible, they will be certified in their area of expertise, such as wilderness first aid.
Facilities will include a suitable homestead, campground, or retreat center in a beautiful, natural setting close to a small town, as well as a storefront with a study lounge, and schoolbusses outfitted for long-range traveling, to accomodate our outreach programs. We also intend to run an organic garden with vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs, fruit bushes and trees, and possibly an organic winery. We will be involving participants in a whole foods kitchen, where we will bake and cook our meals together, and coordinate the responsibilities of housekeeping and management, including recycling, composting, and other environmentally friendly activities. Participants will be encouraged to assist in the construction of outbuildings and stewardship of the facilities and the land.
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation believes that hierarchy is a division of responsibility, not of power. In light of that, everyone including staff and participants will do all of the work together. This will be an expression of our care for and stewardship of our facilities, our lifeways, each other, and life here on Mother Earth. We will draw compassionate attention to the consequences of careless treatment of any of these elements, and participants will be responsible for their part or make amends for lack thereof.
Values
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation,
grounded in humanistic and ecological values,
seeks to develop, evaluate and disseminate programs and projects
that will foster intellectual, ethical, social and spiritual development,
thereby enhancing the lives of our participants and community members,
and promoting personal empowerment and cultural transformation.
While nurturing the capacities of our participants
to think skillfully and critically,
we also strive to deepen their commitment to humanistic and ecological values,
such as compassion, community, personal responsibility, and respect for self, others, and the natural world.
We believe these qualities are essential to living humane and fulfilling lives
in a rapidly changing and evolving world.
Values that Guide the Operations of The Wild Human Initiative
Commitments to excellence, integrity, responsibility, and accountability
Compassion and respect for self, others and the natural world
Innovation and creativity
A sense of adventure and the courage to dream big
Environmental stewardship
Self-sufficiency and Sustainability
Appropriate and Alternative Technologies
Deep Ecology, Social Ecology, and Spiritual Ecology
Radical Self-Expression through Arts and Handicrafts
Traditional and contemporary life ways and beliefs
Humanitarianism, Wild Humanism, and Metahumanism
Grassroots community building and networking
Active participation in and celebration of life and love
Living joyfully in community with a sense of harmonic interdependency
Intentions
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation intends in its activities
to promote grassroots community building, wilderness and urban
survival skills, a sense of connection with nature and our origins,
skills in outdoor leadership and self-sufficiency, experiential educational and social opportunities, and
a healthy, joyful lifestyle tailored to the personal visions and purposes of our participants.
All of our programs, projects, resources and connections will be aimed at
the realization of promoting these crucial aspects of a fulfilling and satisfying life.
Guiding Principles of The Wild Human Initiative
To realize our Visions and Missions, we follow several guiding principles:
Advocacy of a humanistic ethic in our commitments to serving the common good of the people;
Advocacy of a conservation ethic in caring for the land and the natural world;
Advocacy of an ecological ethic in the advancement of the principles
and values of Sustainability, Appropriate Technologies, and Deep Ecology
Beliefs that Inform the Work of The Wild Human Initiative
That living in community teaches us what it truly means to be human;
That tribalism is a natural human life way, and that such a life way
is beneficial for full expression of our unique interests, talents and
gifts;
That all humans and all lifeforms have inherent value by virtue of their existence;
That respect, liberation and empowerment are crucial to realizing our value in the world;
That enabling grassroots community building, experiential educational
and social opportunities, self-sufficiency, self-expression and
adventure
are powerful ways to serve the people and the Earth.
Philosophy of The Wild Human Initiative
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation believes that life in community
teaches us what it means to be human. We wish to provide a small
community,
simplified and insulated for a time from daily stresses and from
global issues, in order to allow people to live in the cultural present,
freer for a time from the pressures of the postmodern world.
Our projects and programs will educate people toward personal
responsibility and accountibility, self-awareness and understanding,
and personal fulfillment, allowing self-realization as a viable,
contributing citizen of the larger society and the world as a whole.
Participants will sense themselves moving from inaction, apprehension and rebellion
to a sense of safety, order, fun, friendship, deepening of vision and purpose, and the experiencing of joy and connection.
We will then look outward at the world to see how we can be happy and live in this world
as responsible and viable parts of the greater, idealized whole.
The Wild Human Initiative Corporation will create basic joy for our participants by recreating the tribe and the village.
Our intention with this is to revert to the simplicities and reliabilities of the true, authentic human self.
We operate from the understanding that the tribal experience produces whole persons, working from the inside to the outside,
creating concrete and spiritual opportunities to manifest change and growth
in safe and beautiful settings.
We plan to support an experiential learning and living center in a natural setting,
whose intention is to elevate individuals within community life,
imparting a deep sense of human tribalism,
to an active understanding of what it means to belong
to nature, to local ecosystems, to spirit, to productive work, to society, to friends,
to history, and to the processes of transition itself.
How We Would Like for You to View The Wild Human Initiative
We wish to be seen as a positive part of the solutions to the underpinning and overarching problems plaguing humanity at this time.
We wish to be seen as contributing members to a movement that will reclaim our natural humanity,
living in harmony with each other and the Earth, while adapting in healthy ways to a rapidly changing world.
We hope to be part of the solutions, and to do our part to create a healthier, happier world for everyone and everything.
What Makes The Wild Human Initiative Unique
We are unique because we intend to effect positive change through a variety of media and through coordinated, far-reaching aspects of our corporation.
We intend to address the needs and desires of the bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits of our participants,
as well as those we reach through observation and conversation.
We are also unique in that we wish to provide a between the ancient traditions of humanity and the contemporary life ways of modern humanity,
blending these together to create a new reality better suited to the uniqueness of our participants.
What The Wild Human Initiative Intends to Accomplish
A greater appreciation for both traditional and contemporary human life ways, as a way to create innovative solutions to the ennui plaguing so many postmodern citizens;
A sense of connection to self, others and the natural world, as well as greater financial security and greater creative and social opportunities;
A healthy, dynamic community of self-aware and self-realized citizens and community members;
A healthier, happier world infused with hope, serenity, passion and joy.
Objectives of The Wild Human Initiative
Motivation of our participants to examine and transform their personal values and behaviors;
Encouragement of people to accept responsibility for self, the Earth, and All our Relations;
Empowerment of people to manifest their dreams and visions for a better life and a healthier world;
Working together to transform our communities by creating a grassroots sense of interconnectedness and family,
and by realizing our vital connections to both the past and the future in creating the present that we dream of;
Service to the human community as a bridge between traditional and contemporary human life ways,
thereby increasing awareness of alternatives and choices,
and by acting as a tool for personal empowerment and cultural transformation.
